Home Values & Pricing
Who decides what my home is worth?
By Steve Lockhart
The short answer
Most owners want a person to blame: the appraiser, the agent, the assessor. The honest answer is that nobody you can take out to lunch sets the number.
Full answer
Most owners want a person to blame: the appraiser, the agent, the assessor. The honest answer is that nobody you can take out to lunch sets the number. The market does, at the meeting of the buyers who show up and the evidence of the recent sales.
The professional readers, the agent building a CMA or the appraiser writing the report, do not invent value, they read it. Both start with the same evidence: the homes in your area comparable to yours that closed recently under similar conditions. Their judgment is real, but the test of it is the sale. When a home trades, the buyer makes an actual decision and the price becomes a fact in the record.
The market is not a single entity; it is the sum of many small decisions. Each buyer in your price band weighs your home against the other listings and the homes they toured, under the payment they can afford and the urgency they feel. When few homes compete and many buyers, the price rises. When the choices multiply, the price softens. That is supply and demand expressing itself at your address.
The price that matters is not the number you need, the number you remember, or the number the county records. It is what the evidence says a buyer will pay. That is why the most reliable value is the one closest to the evidence and the freshest in the market: the comps are the footprints of what buyers actually paid, and the CMA reads those footprints for your home.
So when a number surprises you, check the evidence, then check the date. The market decides, and the market moves, so the answer carries a time stamp. Anyone who promises a number above the evidence is selling a story; the neighborhood is speaking in the present tense.
Go a little deeper
Frequently asked
Questions homeowners often follow up on
Is the market always right about my home?
As a direction, usually. A market can lag a change or sit still, and no one valuation is the last word over a transaction. The direction of the recent sales is the most honest guide, and the closer the evidence, the more dependable the read.
Do appraisers set the value?
No more than a witness sets a verdict. An appraiser states, under standards, what the evidence and the comps support. A serious gap in an appraisal is a sign that the price was built differently from the records, and the market will say which one was right.
How do I know a real number from a good one?
Ask every number for its evidence. A solid CMA shows the sales, the dates, the adjustments, and the reasoning; a blank assurance shows none. When the numbers come with the evidence you can compare them, and the evidence is the closest thing to a published truth.
The Lockhart Method
The Lockhart Method
Your Home | My Strategy | Proven Results
My strategy: put the decision in the evidence and keep the room honest. I bring the sales, the adjustments, and the current demand to the table, we agree on the range the market will register, and you keep the choice. Nobody gets to run a mystery number on your asset; the market decides and the evidence stays visible.
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