How Can I Work Out What My House Is Worth?

- Home Owners Of Kedron & Surrounding Suburbs -

Welcome to "The Big Q" where each week I will answer one big question that I hear every day from property owners.

This week I discuss how to work out what your home is worth based on current sales in the area!

If you would like to get your property value report send us your details at https://www.onepercentproperty.com.au

Thanks for tuning in!

Daniel Hooper - 0424 585 391

Hi, this is Daniel from One Percent Property coming to you with this week's episode of the Big Q. So this week I'm looking at a really, really important question, something that everyone asks and everyone would like to know, and that is how do I work out what my house is worth based in the current market.

Now, look, the easiest answer to that is call me and get a report done. I do them for free, they're absolutely obligation free, and it'll give you an idea of what your property is worth based on what is selling in the area. But it is also really important for homeowners and for vendors to have a look themselves and do a little bit of research and get an idea prior to meeting with agents, because it means your expectations aren't going to be too low, which will allow unscrupulous agents to quote you very low, sell the property very fast, get a commission, and you might lose out on a lot of potential money and your expectations won't be too high, which means you're going to go in too high, you're not going to get a sale and you're just going to sit on the market and go stale. So how do you work out what your property is worth?

Well, look, what I'll do is step you through a very simple way to use realestate.com to work that out. Now, there's a lot of different programs, CoreLogic and all that sort of thing, but they're not necessary. It's really, really simple to do it using realestate.com and I'll show you how to do it now. So realestate.com, we put in our suburb. Now it's really important to select sold because realistically properties can be on the market at much higher listed prices than what they're eventually going to achieve. So we need to make sure we select sold because that is properties that have actually sold and the results have already come in. Obviously, if we're selling a house, we select house and what we'll do is hit search.

So in this example, I'm imagining that we're selling a three bedroom, two bathroom house that is an older Queenslander, it's been renovated, but it is not a new build. So we'll then add in a few parameters. So we add in obviously bedrooms. So this one's three bedrooms. There's no point me looking at four bedrooms, there's no point me looking at five bedrooms because obviously the prices will be different. We then look at filters, it's got two bathrooms. Now in a three bedroom house, the difference between a one and two bathroom can be significant in regards to price. So we add the bathrooms. It's got two car spaces and be aware of land as well, because if you've got an 800 square meter lot, there's no point in looking at properties on 400 or 500 and vice versa. If your property is on 400, you don't want to be looking at comparables on 600, because it's going to give you a false sense of what your property is going to achieve.

You can add in other features, but these are the really important ones. So we then update. That's dropped down from 16,000 to 1,770. We then hit map. Now it's really important to hit map for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we can put it there where it only select properties that sold in the last year. There's no point looking at properties that have sold four or five years ago because things change. Also, we all know that there are different pricing pockets. So for instance, in Kedron, the avenues, which is this area here, the properties in the avenue sell for premium and that the reason they sell for a premium is the lifestyle. They've got the school there, they've got walking distance to the Kedron Brook. So these properties over here sell for significantly more than the rest of the suburb. And even within the avenues, the properties in this end of the avenues, near the park on Culgoola and Benelong Street sell for more than the properties, closer to Gympie Road. Simply just because again, when you're right on the park, that's where the money is.

Now, let's say we're in here. We're on Sixth Avenue. We've got that three bedroom Queenslander. So, okay. What's sold around? And it's really important when you look at location, don't ... You have to take the emotion out of the decision. Don't kid yourself. If your property's over here, don't be looking at properties over here and thinking you're going to get the same price because obviously if you're a resident of that area, you'll know the pockets and it's just not going to happen. So we're here on Sixth Street, Sixth Avenue, let's look at what's sold in the last 12 months nearby. So we've got three properties that are potentially comparables. Now, when we look at this one, it's a dual occupancy. It's a new build, very, very different. So we'll get rid of that.

We then have 27 on Seventh Avenue, 25 Emerald Street. So look at the property features. It's got a deck, okay. We have a deck on our property, perfect. Old wood floors that have been polished, very similar. So this is a renovation. You can see it's got the original walls that have all been polished up. It's got, the kitchen and bathrooms have been redone. So that's a good comparable. So we'll keep that as a potential comparable property. You've got this one on 25 Emerald, probably renovated to a slightly higher standard. It looks like it's got new sheeting on the walls, it's got down lights, it's done to a nice standard and probably closer to a new build, but you can tell it is still a renovated property. It is not a new build. So that's quite similar as well. We'll keep that.

So then when we look at the two properties that are comparable, we've got an 830 and we've got an 810. So it would be, as long as our property is similar lot size, similar features. And when I say features, important things like bedrooms, bathrooms, car spaces, things like that. If we're on a similar level to these two, then it would be a fairly safe to assume, 800 to 850 would be the sales price. Now how far into that, how far high into that we would be able to get would depend very much on the marketing. And it would also depend on the finish of the house. It would depend on whether the property is staged or not. You can see this property that achieved 830, very, very nicely staged for sale, everything pristine and clean. So there are a lot of different factors, obviously that you can discuss with your agent, but that gives you a rough idea of what it's going to be worth.

So it's really important that the factors that are really, really important to look at when you're looking at a comparable of your property, obviously, location, be careful with pockets because there are some areas you go just across the road and the properties are not worth as much. But if you're living there, it's your property, you should obviously know where the pockets are. Lot size is really important. Don't be comparing a 400 with a 600 or 600 with an 800. There can be huge, huge differences and be aware of if it's an 800 or 1,000 square meters, someone might be buying it for a development as well, which can add value. So say someone's got an 800 and you've got a 750 or a 700, if there's a developable lot because it's over 800, that can actually add a lot of value so it might be something you need to take into account.

For size of the house. If your house is 100 square meters and the one you're comparing to is 200 square meters, you can't be comparing those properties because it's going to add value. It can add significant value. When you're talking to like those high-end properties, 300 to 400 can add a million dollars depending on what the finishes are. Obviously, is it renovated? The finish of a property is massive. So if you're exactly the same as the house next door, but you've renovated and they haven't, they're still the old 1940s build, then you're going to get potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars more than them. So that's obviously a very important thing to take into account.

Other features, decks. Have you got a big deck? Have you got an outdoor entertaining space? Is there a pool? Is there a shed? How many car spaces are there? These are all things to take into account. And it's really, really important to try and remove the emotion and be honest with yourself. If you look at another property and it's really similar to yours on all levels, and especially if you can get one or two that are really similar, like this situation, then you can get a really good idea of what your property is worth.

Look, on that note, if you're having trouble working it out and you would like to get a report done by me, obviously it's obligation free. I'm happy to pop out, have a quick look, give you a report and give you an understanding of what your property is worth based on all of the really record breaking sales that are going on in the area at the moment. If you're interested, please give me a call, 0424 585 391. Otherwise, you can just go to our website, which is onepercentproperty.com.au and there's a little form there that'll take some information which will allow me to give you your report. Otherwise, I hope you have had a fantastic week so far and I hope next week it's even better.