Filed under: how-to
Probably the most exciting feature of the findmeahome website is the ability to get a free price estimate on any property that’s not already listed for sale on the site. Let’s walk through how this works.
The first step is to click on the “Price Estimations” tab on the findmeahome site.
step 1 - enter the address you are interested in
Once you’ve clicked “property search”, you’ll see a list of possible matching properties – click “Select” to make sure that you’re looking at the correct one (this saves any problems that might come up with typos).
step 2 - select your property from the list of matching addresses
At this point, if you’re not logged in to the site, you’ll need to sign up or log in.
step 3 - enter in your email address and password for the site.
To make sure that people have a “fair go”, we also require a valid mobile number to access this service (not just an email address). This isn’t so that we can sell your mobile number to people, or send you random text messages – it’s just to ensure that we can avoid people abusing the service by trying to generate any number of valuations for free.
If you haven’t yet confirmed your mobile number, you can do this now. Enter your mobile number, and we’ll send you a text message with a confirmation code in it.
step 4 - validate your mobile number (if you haven't already)
Type the confirmation code into the box, and click “validate”.
step 5 - enter the SMS confirmation code.
Now you’re in the home stretch, so to speak. Enter in as many details about the property as you can – you might even like to upload a photo of the property, if you’re so inclined. The more detail we have, the more accurate the estimate we can make. Click “get estimate”
step 6 - enter in as many details about the property as you can
And that’s it! Your browser will think for a moment, and then show the estimated price, your rating of the property, and – for good measure – the median value of houses and units in the suburb.
step 7 - view the results
Now that you’ve seen how easy it is, why not try it now?
6 Comments so far
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I must say I am intrigued by this tool. Working out what’s a fair price for a house is a really tough task and if this system estimates it close enough, that’s a great help to home-buyers.
Comment by Chris August 22, 2008 @ 9:51 pmIn any bubble an individual property is worth what a buyer is prepared to pay. Current house prices are primarily a function of “bigger fool theory” and may reflect where we are in the cycle, but current prices also depend on credit availability, income multiples, interest rates, inflation, employment levels, consumer sentiment, business sentiment, consumer net worth trends, equity wealth trends, demographics, media and real estate agents spin, data availability (appalling -and includes abuse/gaming the system by agents), and increasingly on global economic factors. Transparency in real estate data is certainly required by consumers, the Reserve Bank and the ABS amongst others. Even if there were any credible data, median prices are a nonsense. We need our own Case/Schiller. This website could potentially become one. It would also reinforce credibility to show the actual sold prices over time, next to estimates – in historic data on the website.
Comment by Andrea August 29, 2008 @ 10:35 amAndrea, thanks for your comment.
The Case/Schiller indices are modelled off the paper that Residex presented to the World Acutarial conference in Montreal in 1992.
Residex releases an improved version on its website.
Comment by fmah September 1, 2008 @ 12:19 pm[...] There is one tool I find interesting at Findmeahome.com. It was designed to get you a price range of a house you’re interested in – and you get 20 attempts for free. They do ask for a valid mobile phone number as means of identity verification but don’t sell it to third parties. I have given my 2 numbers and never got any spam. There is a simple explanation on how to use the system here. [...]
Pingback by What is the right price for a house? | Home I Own, Aussie Real Estate Blog September 12, 2008 @ 12:20 amHi,
Great concept for a site / tool.
Andrea, Fair Market Value is defined as the price agreed upon by a willing but not overanxious seller and buyer at a certain point in time. All these factors you mention are right and would be reflected in current (and actual) sales figures. Since sales figures are never completely current (usually analysis for valuing a property utilises data from the past 6-12 months) socioeconomic factors need to be evaluated as well since the sales took place. If this site could give actual sales figures together with descriptions, pictures and location, plus socioeconomic information relevant to market trends it would aid greatly in making a informed decision.
I am eager to see how accurate the predictions of this site are but (according to an advert I saw) a range of 10% plus/minus the actual Market Value is pretty.. useless in my opinion.
A 10% range of a $500k property would be an estimate between approx $450k to $550k. Am I correct in my assumption?
Comment by Pierre September 24, 2008 @ 1:28 amExcellent blog this fmah.wordpress.com well done and I am really pleased to stumble on : this it’s just what I needed to know.
It’s taken me literally 1 hours and 39 minutes of searching the web to find fmah.wordpress.com (lol) ;)
But seriously I am really interested in Right Move normally and so I shall be very pleased to become a regular visitor
Thanks
Comment by Annie ( Real Estate For Sale ) Wagner October 7, 2009 @ 10:02 pm