Greetings!
My recent post about real estate assessment triggered a comment from a friend about how to estimate current fair market value.
My current method uses a combination of the county’s public record available at the Washington Post, CraigsList, and Zip Realty. I’m lucky that I live in a metropolitan area where information is readily available. I know the Bay Area is also available at CL and Zip, but I’m not sure about county assessments. I’m sure some communities have public records online, but you’ll probably need your lot number or something like that.
I start out looking at the Washington Post for recent sales in my building and my area. Then I move to the comparable current real estate listings, & calculate the dollars per square foot for each listing, and then average out all the results and multiply by the square footage of my unit. Zip Realty has a nice page where you can look at recent sales in your area and they automatically calculate that figure for you. The problem is, if you live in a mixed neighborhood like mine, the single-family homes are far more expensive than condos, so I toss those out if they are wildly out of range. I also try to read how much the HOA fees are for other condos and what’s included in those fees. For instance, I don’t have a concierge/doorman or indoor pool. Trash & water are included, but I also get lots of parking, which a lot of places don’t have around DC.
CraigsList is mostly just for fun because people are awful grammarians. But they often have really nice photos.
For calculating the present worth of my unit, I try to average in stuff that’s only about 4-6 months old. But I also trend the sales in my building since I moved in 18 months ago so I can see the overall growth. I was one of the first studio buyers in the recent set of sales, so I have definitely seen a lot of growth. I shake my head a bit at some of the prices my neighbors have paid, but I know that some of the sold units are nicer than mine too.
Since I get to see the market listing, and follow up by looking at the final recorded sale on the county books, I can see if people are paying the asking price or not. So far, nothing has gone wildly over the asking price, and luckily nothing has been under. But I do see that some units have been on sale for a long time.
If anyone needs me to get more specific on the math, please email me and I will follow up with another post.
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