How do you figure out how much home equity you have?

Paying for College
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<p>Any internet-based housing value estimator that only asks for a few pieces of information has the potential to be wildly inaccurate. The only way to get a good idea of what your home is worth (other than putting it on the market and fielding legitimate offers) is to have someone who is familiar with your local market look at your home inside and out and provide an analysis.</p>

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<p>An appraisal is the most accurate method because appraisals do take into account recent comparable sales and condition of the property, not just square footage. Tax assessments are a starting point, but need to be adjusted for time, condition of house and methodology (does locale use only a % of mkt value, etc). Maybe a combination of Zillow and the Federal Housing Calculator? I think most people have a fairly good idea of whether Zillow tends to run high or low for their given area. </p>

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<p>I plan on calling a real estate agent for an appraisal.</p>

<p>Zillow and the calculator method are giving us numbers way over what I know our house would ever bring living where we do and the amount of updating/work it needs done.</p>

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<p>post #19, I posted the federal website after I realized the Federal housing calculator uses 2006.
An appraisal means it will sell in so many days not right away. Like I wrote be conservative in your numbers.</p>

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<p>Yes, I said exactly that in post #7.</p>

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<p>The “if sold today ( as is)” is very helpful, thanks! </p>

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<p>A professional appraisal provides an estimated market value; in other words, what a house should sell for in a “reasonable” amount of time given a willing seller and a willing buyer, neither of whom is under any duress to sell or buy. It is based on “today’s” market value, but it is not an estimate of what the house would sell for if it had to be sold today - that figure would not be a realistic market value, and is not the figure that financial aid applications are interested in.</p>

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<p>Whatever number you use, you need to have proof not a wild guessing. I found none of these sites including the government ones are accurate anyway. </p>

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<p>That financial aid calculator would assess my house at 130% of FMV based on comparable sales. Housing markets have a lot of regional variation.</p>

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<p>Post #27, that’s the point. Nobody has it correct, so be conservative in your estimate. Sometimes, the school financial aid may change but if you estimate it, don’t overestimate especially with reasonable amount of time depends on the interest, isn’t it.</p>

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<p>The above finaid.org page notes that the calculator values are from 2006. To get the most current values, use the calculator directly on the Federal Housing Finance Agency web site: <a href=“http://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Tools/Pages/HPI-Calculator.aspx”>http://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Tools/Pages/HPI-Calculator.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>^ Still, the FHFA’s estimate is far below the market value in my case. Zillow still gives me the best estimate. YMMV.
As I said above, whichever value you use, you need to document it for your record before submitting CSS profile or FAFSA.</p>

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<p>I posted on this issue several times a few years ago, since this topic comes up VERY frequently. I recommend going with the advice of the author of Paying for College Without Going Broke. see my post #16 in this thread:
<a href=“home value - #17 by MomCat2 - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>home value - #17 by MomCat2 - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

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<p>Thanks momcat. So it makes sense that I would take out the price of getting windows replaced for example, right? Since I’m pretty sure the hypothetical buyer would too.</p>

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<p>Yep, put what you could get if you had to sell your house RIGHT NOW, warts and all, minus any realtor’s commission and any other costs of selling, i.e what you would NET.</p>

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<p>Don’t make this more complicated than it is. The proper number to use is what you would net if the property was sold in today’s market in “as is” condition, assuming a willing seller and a willing buyer, neither of whom is under duress to sell or buy.</p>

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<p>I posted similar link in post #17</p>