We’re preparing to sell our family home that we’ve owned for 32 years. We haven’t done any renovations except a basement bedroom years ago for our son who has since moved away. We’re in no panic to sell so we’ve been thinking of trying to sell the house ourselves but we’re having trouble figuring out what it’s worth because we live in a remote location with no immediate neighbours to compare values with. Is there a best or most accurate way to figure out how much our home is worth?

I can explain in general terms three conventional tools for establishing an approximate value for your home and property, although this is a subject a little beyond my area of expertise. For instance, the provincial government has assessed the value of your house and property to establish the dollar value of your annual property taxes. This is called the “assessed value”. So if you look at your most recent tax assessment notice you will see the amount the government feels your property and home are worth. Unfortunately, this value is often out of sync with another value assessment called “market value”.

Market value is often established by a realtor before (s)he lists your property. Since you intend to try to sell your home without a realtor this market value option may not be available to you. However, this is how it works. A realtor of your choice sets an asking price for your home that (s)he feels will attract buyers and assure you fair value for your home. This value is established using a system of comparisons, including recent sales of similar homes and properties in your area. This market value can vary among realtors, so the trick is to find the value that sells the house for the “right” price in a timely manner.

The third way of establishing value is called appraised value. This value is established by a professional appraiser using criteria and formulae of which I am not familiar. Banks and lending institutions often use and require professional property appraisals to gauge the amount of money they are prepared to lend a prospective purchaser. You can hire an appraiser to provide you with an appraised value to help you establish an asking price. However, appraised values often differ from assessed values as much as assessed values can differ from market values. At the end of the day you may find that using a combination of these tools comes closest to the mark. 

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This article was written by Steven Cannon, a Registered Building Official and partner in Lynch Building Inspection Services Ltd. of Nelson, British Columbia. It originally appeared in The Nelson Express.

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