In today’s real estate market, it can save you money to check your home’s value before you list it or apply for a mortgage. Areas that are in a declining market are seeing up to 75% of the mortgage applications declined based on the appraised value of the home.
This is an expensive lesson as appraisals can cost upwards of $400 depending on your location and home value. The following is a list of resources for checking your homes value before you apply for a mortgage or try to refinance.
Yahoo Real Estate Home Values Yahoo actually gives you both the Zillow value and a value from eppraisal.com. This is a totally free service and gives you a map of what houses have sold in your area and the price. It will also give you a graph of your home’s value over the last year or 5 years.
Zillow.com Zillow gives you a little bit different view of the value. This is still a free service and there are no strings attached.
Eppraisal.com Once again, gives a slightly different view and apparently, slightly different statistics. You can sign up on eppraisal and look at market insights for the area.
If you are thinking of selling, the best advice is to check all of these tools and get a comparative market analysis from several realtors before you make any decisions.
