| How
Does Assessed Value Relate to the Market Value of Your Home? Establishing
Your Home's Current Value
You've decided to sell your home.
To attract buyers and to ensure you receive a fair price, you and your Realtor
will want to establish your home's value. To do this, sellers often start with
their Property Assessment Notice. Your Realtor will also be able to provide you
with an estimate of value based on comparable recent sales and current homes for
sale. What is surprising to many sellers is that there is often a difference between
the assessment value and the actual value determined by your Realtor. What
Accounts for this Difference?
BC Assessment (BCA), a government Crown Corporation, is responsible for sending
every property owner a Property Assessment Notice each January. The notice contains
BCA's estimate of the market value of the property as of the previous July 1st.
The purpose of the information is to create the Assessment Roll, which is used
by local governments to levy property taxes. To
assess the market value of properties, BCA uses what is known as a "mass
appraisal system." This allows BCA to value all properties in a cost-effective
and efficient manner. BCA's database has information on 1.6 million properties.
When a new property is created through zoning, construction or an existing property
changes, a BCA appraiser visits the site and looks at the lot size, the structure
and other factors. To update market values, BCA appraisers do not visit every
property each year. Instead, a mass appraisal system allows them to look at prices
for homes sold in each neighbourhood and apply the information to their evaluation
of all properties in that neighbourhood. With this in mind, there could be several
reasons to explain the difference between BCA's assessed value of your Property
and the current value reported by your Realtor. Here are three possibilities to
consider: 1.
BCA's estimate is current as of July 1st of the preceding year; however, the value
your Realtor places on your property is current as of today's date, resulting
in a more up-to-date estimate.
2. Your Realtor scrutinizes the
most recent comparable data for homes recently sold in your neighbourhood to determine
the current trend of housing prices, while taking into consideration the state
of the economy. An improving economy is often indicative of rising prices, whereas
a declining economy can result in a fall in housing prices.
3.
Your Realtor examines the exterior and interior of your property in detail, noting
any alterations made to your property since the assessment that could affect the
value of you home.
Most successful home sellers have something in common: they
use an informed, expert Realtor to help them through the complex process of selling
their home. Using only your property assessment notice to value your home can
be misleading. For more information on the current market value of your property,
contact Lisa MacIntosh at (604) 263-1144.
Tricks
& Tips for Successfully Selling Your Home
Find
Out What Your Home is Worth...
the market is constantly changing, get an up to date evaluation. Can
You Sell Your Home Yourself... the important questions you need
to ask. Ten
Steps to Selling Your Home... find
out the most important steps in planning the sale of your home. Pricing
Your House Right... determining your "asking price" is the most
important step in preparing your house for sale. How
Does Assessed Value Relate to the Market Value of Your Home? ... find
out the difference between the two.
What
is the MLS... one of the most important tools used for selling
your home. Preparing
Your Home for Sale... selling your home faster and for a potentially
higher price. Documents
You Will See When Selling Your Home... understanding all of the
paper work. Closing
Costs... don't forget about closing costs when you are selling your home. | 
