Stix ‘n Brix

You’ve seen their ads on TV, in magazines, and on the web. They’re everywhere, promising to tell you with just a click or a phone call what your house will sell for. Are they any good? What’s the catch?

For the most part, they’re pretty good. The catch is that to get an accurate market value for your home, you’re going to have to meet with a real estate agent.

Home valuation sites are either agent-driven or fully automated. Agent-driven sites like HouseValues.com  and HomeGain.com don’t actually perform any home valuations. They sell your request as a “lead” to one or more of their subscribing agents, and the agent does the estimate. That’s why you’ll see, if you look closely enough, a disclaimer that “you agree to be contacted by a real estate agent” or something to that effect.

The accuracy of the home valuation you’ll get through these sites will depend of how market-savvy the agent is, and how much information about your house you’re willing to share, but you can get a very accurate assessment of your home’s probable selling price tailored to current market conditions. The agent will probably put you on what’s called a “drip marketing” status, which means that you’ll get occasional “just keeping in touch” emails or calls, but you can stop those just by telling the agent to stop them. No harm, no foul.

Zillow.com is the first fully-automated home valuation site. Zillow has married online mapping technology and property tax records to identify selling prices of homes in your area. From that information they generate an estimate of your homes value. You don’t have to talk to an agent, but the quality of your “Zestimate” can range from decent to terrible. Zillow’s weakness is that it is based on tax records, which may be several months out of date. In a fast-moving market that can mean a difference of tens of thousands of dollars. Tax records also don’t take into account other marketing features like roof condition, curb appeal, interior condition or appliances.

Of course, you could also just call up a local real estate agent and ask them to do a market analysis for you. Here, it pays to be honest with the agent. If you’re just curious about prices or want the value because you’re thinking about taking out a home equity loan, tell the agent up front. They’ll appreciate your candor and, since they know that you’re not really ready to sell, they won’t waste their time hounding you after the market analysis is done. Most agents will do your market analysis for free.