What’s my home worth?

Common questions about home value

• How much is my house worth?+

  The only way to know for certain is a sale — everything before that is an estimate built from the closest thing to it. A comparative market analysis gets there by finding homes truly like yours that sold recently nearby, adjusting for the differences (size, condition, lot, updates), and reading what current demand is doing to those numbers. That’s a different, more careful process than a computer matching your square footage against a database, and it’s why a REALTOR’S® read and an online estimate can land tens of thousands apart on the same home.
• What’s the difference between BC Assessment value and market value?+

  BC Assessment sets a value on every property once a year, based on sales from the previous July — and it exists to divide up property tax fairly across a municipality, not to price a listing. By the time you read your assessment notice, it can already be seven or more months out of date, and a fast-moving or slow-moving market can pull the two numbers apart from there. It’s a reasonable sanity check and nothing more — the number a buyer will actually pay is set by today’s market, not last July’s.
• Are online home value estimates accurate?+

  They’re a fine starting point and a poor final answer. An automated estimate works from public records and recent sales in the area, run through a formula — it has never walked through your kitchen, doesn’t know you finished the basement, and can’t tell a true comparable from a similar-looking home three blocks over with a busier street or a worse view. The gap tends to be widest on homes that are unusual, recently renovated, or sitting on a street the algorithm treats as interchangeable with a less desirable one. Treat the number as a rough range, not a listing price.
• Does a home valuation cost anything?+

  No. A comparative market analysis from a REALTOR® is a normal part of the job, done before you’ve committed to anything — there’s no cost and no obligation to list. It costs you a conversation and, ideally, a look through the home, and you walk away with a number grounded in comparables instead of a formula.
• How often should I check what my home is worth?+

  Once a year is plenty for most owners just keeping a general sense of things, and it’s worth doing again any time something changes — a renovation, a shift in the local market, or simply getting serious about a move. If you’re actively thinking about selling in the next year, a fresh, in-person read closer to the time matters more than an annual check — markets move month to month, and a number from eight months ago can already be stale.
• What’s a comparative market analysis?+

  A comparative market analysis (CMA) is a REALTOR®’s written read on what your home would sell for, built from homes genuinely like yours that have sold recently nearby — adjusted for size, condition, lot, and upgrades — plus a look at what’s currently for sale and how quickly things are moving. It’s the same groundwork that sets a listing price, done up front so you know where you stand before deciding anything.