Seattle

The value of a home is arrived at individually by a buyer and a seller when they agree upon a price and, incidentally, when they are able to close the sale at that price. There are many situations where the sale price is not the listed price and is not the offered price. “Arms length” means that there are no other influencing factors like family ties, distressed sellers or bank ownership etc.

The best way to determine if a home is the right price for you, the buyer, is to educate yourself in the neighborhood where you would like to live. Gathering information from friends and family and the internet is a good start but we will all have different (and sometimes confusing) opinions of what is right. Websites like your county web site , Cyberhomes.com or Zillow.com have to be interpreted by someone who uses those sites all of the time. Zestimates rely on county data and owner input, both of which are just not accurate for YOU! Assessor values are far more complicated than being 20% below “market value.”

I find that not everyone can learn value in previewing just a few homes, and that it may take months to learn what your values are. I’ve had clients rent in a neighborhood for a few months and visit every open house while they are there. Pretty soon they discover that this neighborhood is affordable or not; that a 2 bedroom usually sells for X and a 3 bedroom sells for Y. You learn how people take care of their homes and how they upgrade them. What does it do to the value if there is a new bedroom, kitchen, bath or deck?

You learn what is valuable to you; “And that’s all that counts.” I agree with this. It doesn’t matter what we think.

I’ll use the term Realtor, which refers to a person who belongs to the National Association of Realtors. Their website is Realtor.org. You can find some great questions to ask your agent there.

Realtors can use all of this information to estimate the market value of a home because they are immersed in it all day and every day. They use this information to advocate for your opinion of value. They are supportive of your learning curve and can provide as much time and information as it takes for you to understand what you value in a home.