<p>How does one determine their estimated home value? Various calculators and internet sources can have big differences. More importantly, for financial aid purposes, who checks on the accuracy--and how?</p>
<p>Fafsa does not ask for the value of your primary residence. Profile does. Profile just collects information and sends it to the individual school to do with what it wants. So, to answer your question: the financial aid officers of each school are the ones who will look at your home value. They are the ones who could question the accuracy. </p>
<p>There are several ways to come up with a value. We generally tell people to come up with the value of what the house would sell for today, in its current condition, not at optimal price and to choose the one that gives you the most favorable number (the lowest answer that is reasonable). Some ways are:</p>
<ol>
<li>this calculator [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Federal Housing Index Calculator](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</li>
<li>looking online for sales prices in your area-- If all the houses are different sizes, you can try calculating the cost per square foot of nearby houses and multiply by the size of your house.</li>
<li>Zillow</li>
<li>Asking a real estate agent friend to give you an estimate.</li>
</ol>
<p>You may want to print out what you used so you have a record of it in case a school ever asks how you got the figure.</p>
<p>If you do use a calculation provides online make sure you RIGHT CLICK on the page and SELECT BOOKMARK!! TO SAVE A copy of the page for your records on your browser.</p>
<p>Ax, Bookmarking will not save the numbers as they are. Real Estate pricing conditions change all the time. Once the OP pulls the page back up there is a good chance there will be new numbers listed. The OP should take a screen shot and save that.</p>
<p>I would print out a copy. Keep it with the printed out copy of your profile.</p>
<p>And YES, i think you should have hard copies of both.</p>