Real Estate valuation
Many users have questioned/commented on how best to account for real estate values in your NetworthIQ balance sheets. A new site was launched yesterday, Zillow.com, that claims to be able to do this for you. From my tests, the values it gives are at least in the ballpark. So, if you’re not quite sure what to enter your real estate as, I’d reccommend checking Zillow.com out as opposed to using property tax statements or guessing a number.
February 20th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
I’m rooting for zillow, but I also think using HomeValueBot can provide an additional data point in evaluating the accuracy of zillow. Since several folks have commented on my zillow post that they’re unimpressed so far (my experience was right on the money too)
March 30th, 2006 at 8:17 am
Regardless of the exact value used for accounting for real estate, it is important to account for it. There are a number of profiles that appear to have very low net worth in which people include their mortgages but do not include the value of the real estate. Either include both real estate value and mortgage debt or include neither but only account for an estimated equity value.
April 17th, 2006 at 1:16 am
I think perhaps the key point here is not what market value you should declare your real estate as, but the fact that NetWorth IQ seems to have decided to advise people to report the value of their real estate using market value, as opposed to purchase price.
I think this is perhaps the source of some of the greatest inconsistencies on Networth IQ… some people report purchase price (for real estate, cars, personal property, stocks, and whatnot), whereas others report market value.
There should be clear instructions as to which valuation method should be used in profiles. That way there’ll be consistency in comparisons.