Learn about your property value and home appraisals

Learn all about your home property value and home appraisals

Last Updated: May 11, 2021

What Determines the Value of my Property?

In short, your home value is based on what a buyer is willing to pay for your home, but every buyer is different. There are many different factors that can affect the perceived value of your home. Here are some of the most important factors that determine your property value.

  1. Neighbourhood Comparables
  2. Location
  3. Home size and usable space
  4. Age and condition
  5. Upgrades and updates
  6. The current local market

How Can I Increase my Home Value?

1. Curb appeal

A well-maintained lawn and gardens adds major curb appeal to any home. Cutting the grass, trimming the hedges, and weeding the garden and a great simple step to make your home look fresh and clean from the outside.

Updating your front yard is an easy, inexpensive way to easily increase your homes value. Keeping your lawn mowed, cleaned up flower beds, and maintained tress helps shows the world the pride you take in your home.

2. Repaint Exterior

If you want to enhance the curb appeal even more, give the exterior a fresh coat of paint. You could even change the colour of the front door to stand out more too.

3. Keep Colours Neutral, Inside & Out

Neutral tones (white, beige, grey, etc.), both inside your house and outside, attract people because they are easy to decorate with and often times make rooms appear larger than they really are. Rooms will brighter too, and more calming with neutral colours.

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4. Let Light In

Natural light helps make a space feel more inviting and open. You can even add more lighting if you have too with dimmers so people can create any mood they want. As mentioned above, neutral tones will also create more light.

5. Open-Concept

Open-concept is a very popular demand, especially for families. Knock out unnecessary walls to create a natural flow between rooms like the living room, dining room and kitchen.

One thing to note, that while open-concept is in high demand it can be costly to take down walls and you may not see a return on investment if you plan on selling your home.

6. Upgrade The Kitchen

You don’t always need to spend thousands on a new kitchen but can simply give your kitchen a facelift. Add cabinets for extra storage or create an eat-in kitchen with an island that can serve multiple purposes. Choose neutral colours for the cabinets, backsplash, and counter tops.

From a return on investment point of view, kitchen upgrades tend to see a 70% return on investment.

7. Upgrade The Washroom

Make sure the placement of everything makes sense. Expand the bathroom if you have too to create more space between the tub and toilet. Add dual sinks and storage space for towels, shower products, etc.

8. Clutter & Add Storage

Decluttering and removing extra items from your visual space can help make your space feel larger. As well, adding extra cabinetry or baskets to help store your items will help your home have more storage.

9. Keep Up With Maintenance

Overall just keep up with maintenance. If something breaks or paint peels, fix it right away. Clean the gutters, fix any minor plumbing or electrical issues. Even fixing a tiny chip in the wall or flooring could make a huge difference.

How Does the Value of my Home Determine my Property Taxes?

You may have noticed that the price a home is listed for, or even the price you recently paid for it, differs from the assigned value. Wondering why this is?  

While the assessed value and the market value of your home should, under normal market conditions, be similar, several factors can lead to differences being seen between the two valuations. First, trends in market conditions can make the market value of your home differ from its assessed value. An example, if it is a seller's market then it is likely that the market price of your home will be higher than its assessed value. Another factor that could explain the difference between your home’s assessed value and its market value is any renovations that have been done.

Improvements to the interior of your home such as a new kitchen or would likely not be a factor in your assessed value. However, home improvements would certainly boost the marketability of your home and, hence its market value. Though, if you change the footprint of your home that will change your taxes especially if a building permit was obtained. If a permit was not issued, it could take MPAC a few years for them to determine a change has been made

 

Why you May Need a Property Valuation When you Don’t Plan on Selling

In some scenarios you may need to get a property valuation even if you do not plan on selling. This could be due to a refinancing, income tax, divorce/separation or even estate planning.

While many real estate agents will provide a basic home appraisal for clients for free it is always recommended you inform your agent if this appraisal if you’re a different purpose. This is because you may need a more formal appraisal with greater detail. There may also be a cost associated with this detailed report, which typically costs between $300-$500.

How to Get a Property Valuation/ Home Appraisal

There are a few ways to get a home appraisal but who you hire will depend on why you need the property valuation. As mentioned above, if you need a detailed report for official purposes you can hire an official Property Appraiser. Some real estate agents are also certified Property Appraisers who can prepare this report for you.

If you are simply curious how much your home is worth or how to increase your homes value a real estate agent is your best source. They can provide you with an estimate of how much your home can sell for. They will use current market trends along with comparables of homes sold similar to yours in size, style and area to determine your approximates home value.

Get a Free Home Appraisal

At Fivewalls you can get 3 free home appraisals from 3 of our top Fivewalls Certified Agents. Simply fill out our specialized form to give our agents information about your home to get an accurate home appraisal.

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