What is my Beacon Hill condo home value?

portland zestimates — Boston Beacon Hill condos for sale

Admit it. You, like many people — whether or not they’re actually interested in buying or selling a Beacon Hill home — have typed your address into Zillow to see what Boston luxury condos in your neighborhood are worth. You might have even seen a “Zestimate” on your own home. How accurate is that number? Actually, according to the company itself, Zillow’s Zestimates are accurate to within 5% of the actual value of the home no more than half of the time. If you’d rather not flip a coin when it comes to this life-altering decision, there’s a better way to find out what your Beacon Hill condo is really worth. And it’s easy — just talk to your Beacon Hill real estate agent.

Real estate agents are the home value experts. When I hear from a potential client who wants to know what their Boston luxury condo might sell for, the first thing I do is dig into the numbers. Some of these numbers are publicly available, such as the active listings you find on Realtor.com, Zillow or Trulia. Others, like closed sales and withdrawn listings, are only available through Downtown Boston Regional Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which REALTORs who are part of the National Association of Realtors have access to.

Data on active, pending and sold listings in your home’s neighborhood give us an idea of what comparable homes are selling for right now on the downtown Boston real estate market. For example, if your home has two bedrooms and one bathroom and a helipad (unlikely, but let’s just pretend), it’s going to be worth more than a home with one bedroom, one bathroom and no helipad, but less than a four-bed, three-bath home, with or without a place to park your airborne vehicle.

A report that compares your home to homes similar to it is called a Comparative Market Analysis, or a Comparative Valuation Report. It’s more than just a number — it’s a treasure trove of information about what your home is worth to the buyers who are looking for homes in Boston right now, and will point you toward the best way to improve your home’s value. If, for example, the only difference between your home and one that’s valued $20,000 more is an upgraded kitchen, you might look into what it would cost to upgrade your own kitchen before putting your home on the Boston real estate market.

The goal of a Comparative Market Analysis is to find the magic price that will both meet your needs as a seller and also make your home attractive to buyers. There’s a difference between the home’s value and the listing price – you’ll want to leave room for negotiation, and your Beacon Hill real estate agent can help you figure out how much. If a potential buyer puts in an offer, they will get a third-party appraisal of your home’s value. Usually, it will come in pretty close to what your real estate agent valued it in the first place, as appraisers and real estate agents (for the most part) use the exact same tools to obtain your home’s value. (Keep in mind, an appraiser’s value is official, while a real estate agent’s is an educated opinion of value.)

Whether or not it will match that Zillow Zestimate you looked up late at night when you first considered selling your home – well, that’s a coin toss!