With the Ottawa real estate market continuing to explode as we enter 2021, you may be asking yourself how much your Barrhaven home is worth.
While you can use a home value calculator to get a broad understanding of your property’s worth, our real estate agents can provide you with a more accurate estimation of your Barrhaven home’s market value to help you decide whether or not now is the time to sell.
Our real estate agents use multiple techniques in assessing the market value of your home, as outlined below.
Spoiler alert: market value is NOT the amount listed on your property tax assessment. Assessed values for taxation purposes are based on an algorithm that has little to do with what your house would sell for.
COMPARITIVE MARKET ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE YOUR HOME’S WORTH
Our real estate agents have access to historical sales data and will look at what houses comparable to yours have sold for. Some of this data is publicly available, but realtors have access to a more complete dataset. Your agent will look for properties in the same, or similar, neighbourhoods with similar square footage and number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
When looking at comparable properties, when a property sold is also important. Has the market changed in the interim? Is there the same amount of inventory on the market?
If having looked at the ‘comps’ for your Barrhaven home, our agent decides that $650,000 is a reasonable asking price, they’ll then look at current inventory.
What properties are on the market in Barrhaven and surrounding areas in the $600,000 to $700,000 range? This is your competition. Potential buyers will be comparing your house to what is currently available within the same price range at the time they’re looking.
HOW YOUR UNIQUE PROPERTY AFFECTS YOUR HOME’S WORTH
Our real estate agents can do the initial comparative analysis before they even meet with you and will likely have that information available to share with you when you first meet.
Our agents will perform a more detailed assessment during the actual viewing of the specific house and property. This will help us identify whether it has any unique selling features that could add to its value.
Does it back onto the Stonebridge Golf Course or Half Moon Bay Park? Is it the end unit of a townhouse? Have any significant upgrades been done?
Conversely, some features might detract from its value. Does it back onto a busy road, transit way or a commercial building?
If the interior is dated and the buyers need to put money into upgrades, this will affect the home’s worth and the asking price. A staged home, either by the seller or by professional stagers, will show better than a cluttered house and could affect the market value.
THE ART AND SCIENCE OF MARKET VALUE
There’s no magic formula to determine the market value of your Barrhaven home. Market value is the amount someone is willing to pay for a property. Estimating that number is as much an art as a science.
Our real estate agents will look at the data available, consider the current market, and, with the benefit of years of experience, add a dash of intuition and suggest an asking price.
The listing price may not necessarily be what the agent thinks the market value is, depending on the strategy you and your agent decide upon.
In a seller’s market, the agent may price the house lower than its estimated market value to encourage a high level of interest. Alternatively, you may decide to list higher than the estimated market value, knowing that offers will come in below the asking price.
It can be tempting when interviewing real estate agents to go with the one who recommends the highest list price, but there’s no reason to believe that’s the most accurate assessment.
It may mean you list higher initially and then must drop the price later. A home on the market longer than most can be a red flag to potential buyers, so this may not be the best strategy.
There’s a tendency for sellers to be less objective about their home’s value because they have an emotional attachment to it and naturally ascribe a higher value to their own choices and preferences than others might.
Be aware that real estate agents have a more unbiased view of the value of your home. However, make sure you feel comfortable with the rationale behind their assessment and the strategy they’ve outlined. The list price should be a mutually agreed-upon decision.
Finally, keep in mind that people are unpredictable beings. Even the most experienced real estate agent will occasionally be caught off guard by a house’s selling price.
Two identical townhouse units can sell for prices tens of thousands of dollars apart even within a few days of each other, based on the particular buyers and inventory in the market at those points in time.
Our team of experienced real estate agents know the market and how to accurately determine your Barrhaven home’s value so when you do decide to sell, you get the best possible deal. Get in touch with us, today.
Buy and sell with confidence. Choose the MacDonald Property Group.
At The MacDonald Property Group, we have a dedicated, national award-winning full-service team all under one roof, ready to provide the expertise you can trust. Our team and associates are recognized as the top 1% in North America since 2010.
With over twenty-five years of experience in all aspects of real estate, we have bought and sold well over a thousand homes. We’ve been honoured to help thousands of clients in Barrhaven and across the Ottawa area close a deal with confidence and satisfaction. Give us a shout and let us show you what we can do for you!