Home evaluation
What's my home worth?
It's the question nearly everyone starts with, and it's the hardest one to answer honestly in a sentence. A number on its own can't tell you whether now is a good time to sell, or what it would take to get there.
“What's it worth?” begins with “What am I deciding?”
Most people asking aren't ready to list. They're weighing something else — whether the house still fits, whether the next move is affordable, whether this year or in two. The number matters, but only as one input into a decision that has three or four others in it.
And a number by itself is easy to misread. A figure from a website is an average of the homes around yours, and averages don't know what you've done to it, what the street is doing this month, or what the two homes for sale down the road are asking.
So a good evaluation should leave you able to decide, not just able to quote a figure. What your home may be worth now, what could change that, what it might take to get ready, how long selling typically takes, and what it costs to sell.
What actually happens
Five steps, and you can stop after any of them.
1
You tell me what you're weighing
A few lines is plenty. Timing, space, money, or just curiosity — it all changes what's worth looking at.
2
We talk it through
Twenty minutes on the phone, or at your kitchen table if you'd rather. Most questions get answered here.
3
I come and look at the home
Only if it's useful. What's been done to it, and what a buyer will notice, are things I can't read off a listing.
4
You get the numbers, and the reasoning
What's sold, what's competing with you now, and how I'd position it. Written down, so you can read it twice.
5
You decide
Sell now, sell later, or don't sell. Sometimes the honest answer is to stay put a while, and you'll hear that too.
Caution: treating an online estimate as your asking price. It's built from what sold near you, which means it can't see the new kitchen, the north-facing yard, or the two homes that went up for sale on your street last week.
A better way: use it to decide whether the conversation is worth having, then set a price against what a buyer can actually choose between this month.
Questions people ask before they send this
Will you just tell me a number?
Not from a form, no. I could put a figure in an email in about four minutes, and it would be worth roughly what it cost you.
A number that's any use comes from seeing the home and knowing what you're trying to do with it. That's a conversation, and it's the part I'd rather not skip.
What does it cost?
Nothing. It's the largest piece of work I do that nobody pays me for, and I do it because it's how we both find out whether we're a fit.
Am I committing to anything?
No. Nobody has to decide anything at the end of it — including me.
Sometimes we agree I can help. Sometimes you decide I'm not the right person. Occasionally I'm the one who says so. All three are fine endings.
What do you need from me?
Your name, a way to reach you, and a rough sense of what's prompting this. The address helps, and you can leave it out if you'd rather not say yet.
How long does it take?
The conversation is twenty minutes or so. If I come and look, that's another hour, and the written work usually comes back within a few days.
Tell me what you're weighing.
You don't need an address, a date, or a plan. A few lines about what prompted the question is enough to make the first conversation useful.
You're not committing to list by asking.
Thanks — I'll read what you sent and come back to you.
Usually within a day, on whichever way you asked me to.
That didn't go through. Email me at gareth@garethmorris.ca and we'll pick it up from there.
Get the numbers. Then decide.