We've all done it. Who can resist the temptation to occasionally go online and visit one of the many generic home valuation sites and see what their home might be worth! And, if we're being totally honest, it’s also fun to check the value of homes belonging to neighbors, friends and family.

First and foremost, these sites are great fun and do give some sense of where your property value sits in relation to others.

But there's no guarantee they are accurate however...

Like all busy agents, we often come across sellers who express their frustration that the price they were quoted online doesn't in fact have a very direct relationship to the actual market value of the property. It's not uncommon for prices to be as much as 10% adrift of the actual market price (both plus and minus) and there have been other examples where the pricing is much further out of touch with reality.

So how does this happen?Each of the generic pricing websites will have its own method of arriving at what it thinks your home is worth. The information is always historic and cannot take account of any expensive additions and upgrades you have made to the home.

There is no sense of where the market is right now; information that busy and experienced agents like us always have at our fingertips. This is an even more important factor at the moment, because, as we've reported in the last couple of blogs, there is a downward pressure on prices as buyers reach the outer envelope of what they can afford, and we thus have a general price correction occurring at present.

So while visiting these sites can provide some sense of where your home sits in the marketplace, it's very important to understand that their accuracy is, at best, questionable.

Nothing can replace a thorough inspection of your home to arrive at the right price, so why not contact us at The Hyland Group on 928-445-2100 to arrange a free, no-obligation valuation.