Understanding the “What Is Your Home Worth?" Feature

The concept behind this feature is not necessarily to provide an accurate appraisal report at the whim of a visitor’s request, as that would be nearly impossible to do. We all know that to provide a valid report, an appraiser or real estate agent would really need to view the property, look at closed comps, review current comparable properties, make adjustments, etc.

And even if we could provide an accurate pricing analysis on a property from our web site, think about it. If a computer could evaluate the price/value of a home, we had all better start looking for a new job, they don't need an agent.

The whole point is to show the visitor that they do need an agent…and to contact an agent (you) to provide a real live market analysis with a “personal touch”.

To help make this more obvious the visitor, I am adding the following verbiage to most pages when the module is added as a lower level page, and at least one of the following paragraphs even when on the front home page:
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Determine the approximate value of your home by completing the information fields below. This is approximate only as I have not actually viewed your home, and therefore all factors cannot be added or deducted from the estimated value.

The following home estimate tool provides information on recent closed sales for the past 6 months within 1 mile radius of the subject property address of your search.

This Home Value Estimator is not a formal appraisal of the value of your home. If you would like a Comparative Market Analysis, please feel free to contact me. I will be happy to provide that invaluable "human touch" and make available a more detailed analysis report.

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Once a user has his/her results, the following information/instructions are provided on the results page:

"Listed below are the homes nearest to your property that have recently sold. If the homes listed below do not resemble your property uncheck it's box and recalculate at the bottom of the page. To see more information about the sold property click on the photo of the property."

You can see that the user has the ability to modify the values by allowing the user to deselect any low end or high end properties that may not be reflective of their property and then they can recalculate.

NOTE 1: Other helpful names for a button or title/header at the top of this specific page could be “Home Value Estimator” or” Neighborhood Solds”,…or anything else that you feel appropriately identifies what this feature does on your site.

NOTE 2: In the event that you were unaware, this is also a lead generating system, anyone who fills out the information and submits it from this module generates an email to you with their email and the subject property they were endeavoring to determine the value on…how you treat this lead is up to you. This is a fair trade, as by providing you info, then they receive info.

NOTE 3: Additional information is available on this newer “What Is Your Home Worth?” feature in an earlier post.