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Articles by Real Estate Professionals
Appraisers Home Pricing Tips
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services, the real estate professionals will discuss different specific "Topics"
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Author, Jay Westrick is Manager of the Residential Appraisal
Department at O’Connor & Associates. He is a Texas State Certified real estate
appraiser. (Lic. #Tx 1327601-R). You may contact the O’Connor & Associates
Residential Appraisal Department at (713) 686-9955.
HINTS ON PRICING A HOME
The most common way to price a home for sale is to calculate a sales
price per square foot. The typical data source for the square footage of a property’s
living area can be obtained from the local appraisal district. This information is often
reasonably accurate; however, those records are sometimes in error. In some instances,
these errors can be as much as 10% or more.
To calculate a price per square foot, the sales price of a home that recently
sold in the same subdivision or immediate area is divided by the square footage of the
living area. Once again, the square footage for properties is likely from the appraisal
district. Pricing homes on this basis is simple but may tend to ignore features in your
property, such as an oversized lot, quality of construction, a larger than typical garage,
etc. The data provided on the MLS service does not provide the sketch from the county
records. Having the sketch of the property would allow comparison to the home for
accuracy.
How can erroneous prices per square foot be avoided? Either measure your home
personally or have someone experienced in measuring homes do it for you. If you have the
plans to your home, they can be a source of reliable data. A trip to the local appraisal
district for a copy of the sketch also could be useful.
Typically, an appraiser will value a home based on a personal visit, which
includes a measurement of the residence. Both exterior and interior observations are made
in order to complete a detailed report. The report includes items, such as lot, living
area and garage size. Other details listed would be interior finish items, kitchen
appliances, floor coverings, ceiling fans, fireplace(s), heating and cooling equipment,
room count (including the number of bedrooms and baths), exterior decks, etc. Then the
appraiser makes a comparison of these major components of the home to other recent sales
in the neighborhood. He or she usually has access to a database which provides square
footage data based on the appraisal reports from other appraisers. That footage data is
usually based on personal measurements which local appraisers use to verify the local
appraisal district information. Appraisers use this data when comparing square footage
between the home being appraised and the sales data being used for value estimation.
The difference between an appraisal and the pricing process used by most real
estate agents is the extent of verification involved in the detailed appraisal report.
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