Expert Contribution

Want to know your home value?

Ask for a PEAR.

These days everyone and every site can tell you what your home is worth. Everywhere you look you can find someone offering comparables, ‘comps’, and even a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) report. All of these give you the value of what similar homes are selling for and an idea of market value of your home. It is great to know what price range you can plan on selling your home for, but what you really should want to know is how much will you net? I am guessing that the amount you will net is considerably different from what you may be thinking. 

According to CoreLogic, the average American has more equity than they think. But before you can plan on your next house purchase and your budget, you might want to have a better understanding of how much you have. 

For example, you might just guesstimate the loan balance you owe, minus average closing fees and ‘bam’ – there is your purchasing power for the next home. Right?!? Not quite. These days most brokers want you to spend money to get the home on the market. How much is that going to cost, you might ask? 

This is exactly why instead of asking for a CMA, what you should be asking for is a PEAR – Professional Equity Assessment Report. A PEAR report will not only tell you the range in where you should be selling, the market report part, it will also tell you exactly what work needs to be done to get your home that sales amount (based on a visual inspection of the condition of your home) by assessing how much money it will take to get your home on the market. It will also include finding all liens against the home that must be paid off. To really understand your true equity, and not just what your house should sell for, you need a PEAR! 

This is a better tool than a CMA, because you can know exactly how much cash you will walk away with when you sell. 

Given our current seller’s market, homes are frequently going over the asking price with multiple bids, which increases your equity. Now is the time to find out what your “PEAR” is worth. 

For questions contact Tiffany Stock at Keller Williams Danville. 


By Tiffany Stock, Real Estate Broker, Keller Williams