Almost every homeowner in London and St. Thomas has typed their address into an online estimate tool at some point. Most come away with a number they are not quite sure they believe, and they are right to hesitate. Automated estimates are useful for a rough sense of direction and genuinely poor at the thing that decides your sale price: what makes your specific home different from the one that sold down the street.
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548 490 4577What an Automated Estimate Actually Does
An automated valuation model compares your property against recent nearby sales with similar recorded characteristics, then adjusts for broad market movement. It is a regression, not an inspection. Everything it knows about your home came from a database, and databases record what is easy to record.
What the Model Cannot See
- Condition. A kitchen last updated in 1994 and one updated last year have identical database entries.
- Layout. Two homes with the same square footage can live completely differently, and buyers pay for how a house lives.
- Finished basements. Often recorded inconsistently or not at all, while buyers treat finished lower levels as real space.
- What is behind you. Backing onto green space, a school field, a busy road or a commercial lot moves value in ways no square-footage field captures.
- Micro-location. In London the premium can change within a few blocks, and a model working at postal-code resolution averages that away.
- Recent work with no permit trail. New roof, windows, furnace, wiring. Real money spent, invisible to the model.
- Why comparable homes sold for what they did. A sale that closed quickly because of a family situation is a data point to a model and a caution to an experienced agent.
What a Real Home Evaluation Adds
A proper evaluation starts with the same comparable sales, then does the part the model cannot: adjusts them against your actual home. That means walking the property, noting condition and layout, identifying which recent sales are genuinely comparable and which only look comparable on paper, and explaining the reasoning so you can check it.
- A walkthrough of the property, inside and out.
- Comparable sales you can actually see, with the reasoning for each adjustment rather than a single number at the bottom of a page.
- A view on what the current market will bear, informed by what is selling and what is sitting.
- A straight answer about timing, including when the answer is that waiting makes more sense.
Evaluation, Appraisal and Assessment Are Three Different Things
| Type | Who prepares it | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Home evaluation (CMA) | A real estate broker or salesperson | Setting a realistic list price, or deciding whether to sell at all |
| Appraisal | A designated appraiser (AIC) | Lender financing, legal matters, estate valuations |
| MPAC assessment | Municipal Property Assessment Corporation | Calculating property tax, not market value |
These get used interchangeably in conversation and they are not interchangeable. If your MPAC assessment and your market value disagree, that is normal and expected. Assessment is a tax mechanism on its own cycle, not an estimate of what a buyer would pay you today.
When an Estimate Is Good Enough, and When It Is Not
If you are idly curious about direction, an online number is fine. If you are making a decision that money depends on, it is not. That includes setting a list price, deciding whether you can afford the next place, negotiating a separation or estate settlement, or deciding whether to renovate before selling. In each of those, being wrong by five percent is real money.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a home evaluation cost?
Nothing, when a real estate broker prepares it. A home evaluation is a comparative market analysis and is normally provided free and without obligation. A formal appraisal by a designated appraiser is a paid professional service, typically ordered by a lender.
How long does a home evaluation take?
The walkthrough itself usually takes under an hour for a typical home. Preparing the comparable analysis properly takes longer, and you should expect to receive the reasoning in writing rather than a single number over the phone.
Will I be pressured to list my home?
You should not be. An evaluation is information, and plenty of them end with a recommendation to wait. If an agent will only give you a number in exchange for a signed listing agreement, that tells you what the exercise was really for.
Why is my MPAC assessment different from my home's market value?
Because they measure different things. MPAC assessment exists to apportion property tax and runs on its own valuation cycle, which can lag the market by years. Market value is what a buyer would pay today. A gap between the two is normal and is not evidence that either number is wrong.
Should I get an evaluation if I am not selling yet?
Often yes, particularly if you are a year or two out. Knowing your realistic number changes what you do in the meantime, including which renovations are worth doing and which will not return what they cost.
