How To Calculate The Fair Market Value Of A Property?

Definition of "How to calculate the fair market value of a property?"

Wondering how to calculate the fair market value of a property?

It helps if you understand that it’s all about an estimate; you’ll hardly bull’s-eye-it.

Fair market value is the highest value a home seller and home buyer can agree to in the sale of a property.

So you can read articles about how to calculate the fair market value of a property – like this one – and try to understand the many factors that can influence not only home buyers but also home sellers and kid around trying to calculate it, but the reality is that the only way of finding out the fair market value is after hand are shaken and the deal is through.

Ok, now that we’ve established that calculating the fair market value is a way of having an “idea” more than a concrete fact, let’s take a look at the most important factors when learning how to calculate the fair market value of a property:

  • Market value: how are similar properties doing price-wise? How much are its owners asking and how much is it actually selling for? An appraisal will give you this information.
  • Home seller’s expectation: what does it matter if home buyer’s will pay $300,000 if the home seller will only accept selling the home for over $4,000? Some home sellers have no problem leaving the house on the market until it reaches the point of which they think the house is worth, so any other calculation is useless.
  • Home buyer’s purchase power: like the last one, what does it matter how many rooms the house has and how much similar houses sold in the past if *right now* (for whatever reason) there’s no one with money to spend?

So if you’re wondering why should I use a real estate agent, now you can see why. With all those factors and the variations within them, it’s fundamental that you find an experienced local real estate agent because he or she will know how to calculate the fair market value of a property and guide you throughout the home buying (or selling) process.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Real Estate Questions

Popular Real Estate Glossary Terms

Tax credit aimed at encouraging the conservation of natural resources, as well as the development of alternative resource. ...

Point at which a housing development becomes a neighborhood. After an initial housing development is sold and the new owners become established, the neighborhood stage begins. The ...

Wondering what a Judgment Lien is?Well, a Lien can be consensual or non-consensual, right? Meaning it can be forced or agreed upon by way of a bilateral contract. When we say ...

Optional feature included in some homeowners insurance policies that pays the replacement cost of any personal property. ...

Money earned or accrued during an accounting period that results in the increase in total assets. Items such as rental income. Revenues arising from the sales of real estate. The ...

The term over-improvement in real estate defines a substantial and somewhat exaggerated land improvement compared to other properties in the area. For example, an individual builds at a ...

Thin layer or slate of baked clay, linoleum, or some other material that is used for covering floors, roofs, or as an ornament in a building. ...

General decrease in prices. It is the opposite of inflation and different from disinflation, which is a decrease in the rate of price increases. Deflation results form a reduction in the ...

Total expenditure to modernize a building to meet the owner's or tenant's needs. ...