Anyone considering selling their home will usually start the process by contacting a real estate agent to find out how much their property is worth in today’s real estate market.

Often called an ‘appraisal’ or price update, this is where your agent lets you know what they think your home might sell for.

Thanks largely to covid, a lot of agents found themselves in a situation where they weren’t able to visit properties to conduct the appraisal in person, so virtual appraisals – sight unseen – became a more common thing.

In this video, I discuss how accurate this kind of appraisal is and what are some options to improve the accuracy of your property price estimate report.

This video segment was pulled from a long interview I did back in Feb 2022, where I answered a heap of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about real estate.

Once you’ve watched the video, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Note: The video was filmed in portrait mode rather than landscape, which is why it is narrow rather than wide. For the best viewing experience, I recommend you click the Full Screen mode button.

Additional Resources

Transcript:

So, site unseen appraisals or site unseen updates, those sort of things, they are pretty much a blind guess.

However, if the agent has got good local knowledge they can be a fairly educated guess, but it cannot take into account any updates or changes that you’ve made to the property, if it’s different to any of the information that’s publicly available online or by driving past the property themselves.

So, what I would say to you is that, it is for entertainment value.

It is to give you a starting point, to see what other homes in your area statistically, have been selling for.

And only after we actually walk through the property or you as a homeowner really, honestly, compare your upgrades and the condition of your home, to those examples that have been quoted when that figure has been determined by the computer, can you get an idea of what your actual market value is likely to be.

So, at some point, if you are making some sort of move, so, if you are going to either sell or you’re wanting to refinance or draw some equity out to buy an investment property or to make any sort of financial move, unfortunately, at some point, you are either going to have to, let an agent come through the house to physically see it, or have the bank come through and do a formal valuation of the property.

Whichever way, the only way that we can actually accurately assess your position in the market or your homes position in market, is in person or minimum, on a FaceTime, Zoom, or a video call.