The hard truth is that a home is worth what buyers are willing to pay for it.
Determining a home’s fair market value at the outset goes a long way to setting the stage for a seller to receive the most that the market will pay. It is extremely important to get this right.
Valuations to consider:
City of Toronto evaluation
The city has established a Market Value Assessment on every residential property in Toronto. We have yet to see a property sell for less than its official MVA but that is a good starting point.
Professional valuations
A professional appraiser could be retained to determine an estimated value for your home. Banks use professional appraisers to establish valuations before they place mortgages on properties. Appraisers charge for evaluations and, as such, one would assume the value they place would be an informed, unbiased assessment. We have noted that professional valuations tend to be conservative since the appraiser wants to be able to unequivocally substantiate their evaluation in court should the situation arise.
Realtor Appraisals
Realtors absolutely are the people best equipped to interpret current market conditions as applied to the subject property for a fair market value evaluation. They can apply their local market knowledge and expert judgment to arrive at that figure. Their opinion of value is an informal estimate of what the property would receive were it presently on the market. Frankly, some Realtors are more professional and better at this than others. Also, some Realtors tend to give a very high price on their value estimate in order to secure the listing. Don’t set the asking price on your property based on one Realtor’s evaluation. Get a couple of quotes and ask Realtors to substantiate and specifically identify how they arrived at their valuations. Choose your Realtor based upon the professionalism of their overall marketing strategy rather than upon an unsubstantiated, optimistically high valuation.
