<p>I am filling out the CSS profile and noticed that they say you should not list an appraisal amount or the tax assessment amount as the current market value. What amount am I supposed to use then? I have heard that colleges use a formulate based on the number of years I have owned the house. This might normally make sense but not in today's market. And if that is true, why do they even ask me for the market value.</p>
<p>I had the same question. I did use the current market value from the tax assessment, not the tax assessed value. I got error messages saying that the amount owed was more than the fair market value of my home. Yeah, I know!</p>
<p>We used the number from the Zillow web site.
It’s based on recent home sales, as far as I understand.</p>
<p>I used the number from the Federal Housing Finance agency. [Federal</a> Housing Finance Agency - Home](<a href=“http://fhfa.gov%5DFederal”>http://fhfa.gov), click on house price calculator.</p>
<p>The “Paying for College Without Going Broke” book says you should put the amount you could get for your home if you had to sell it RIGHT AWAY, minus the cost of real estate commisions, etc.
I’ve quoted that portion of the book here several times in the past month – this is about the 4th recent thread on this topic.
Do a search here to find that page of the book, or a google search.</p>
<p>Given that (depending on how far behind they’ve gotten on home maintenance) most people put THOUSANDS of dollars into repairs, painting, carpet, possibly a new roof, etc before putting their home on the market, this approach seems appropriate to me – shows how much you would actually NET if you sold your house.</p>
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<p>I went to a local multi-list website and looked for similar houses in my neighborhood that recently sold. Don’t rely upon sales from a couple years ago, or the value will likely be inflated.</p>
<p>MomCat2 – that’s a great way to think of it – sure, you could list your home for a nice price and let the market come to you, but it’s far more meaningful to know the price you’d get if you couldn’t wait. And the cost of catching up on deferred maintenance is more than simply dollars. In my town, most young homebuying couples consist of a guy who works a ton of hours and she’s pregnant. They don’t even want to LOOK at a house that needs work. So it isn’t a matter of them discounting the asking price because your house needs a new kitchen. They don’t even want to see it, much less make an offer.</p>