Whether you need to know your home's market value in preparation for selling it or because you're considering a home equity line of credit, you can perform your own market appraisal without relying on a real estate agent. If you're planning on selling, knowing the right market value is critical to increasing your chances for a quick sale. Using these simple guidelines, find out what your home is worth on today's market.

The Market Appraisal

Wherever you happen to live, the basic process used to determine a home's market value is the same. You're comparing your home against homes with similar features, in the same general area where your home is located, that have been sold within the past three to six months. In a very active market you'll want to look at homes that have sold as recently as possible, since home prices can change more quickly under these circumstances.

The homes used for comparisons are referred to as comparables, or comps, by mortgage lenders and real estate agents. To get an accurate picture of what homes are selling for now, a good market appraisal will include as many comps as possible, sold as recently as possible, . The number of comps available will depend on how active the market is, but a dozen similar homes that have sold within the past three months would be ideal.

Some common features used for comparables are:

• Number of bedrooms
• Square footage
• Number of stories
• Heating method
• Lot size
• General condition
• Age of construction
• Age and condition of roof
• Type of construction (brick, vinyl siding, etc.)
• Neighborhood location

In addition to comparing features that all homes have in common, your home may have less common features that are taken into consideration, such as:

• Views
• Fireplaces
• Decks
• Hardwood or tile flooring
• Unique landscaping
• Built-in swimming pool
• Unique construction (custom home, tile roofing, radiant floor heating, etc.)

Because no two homes are exactly alike, many things need to be considered when comparing homes for a market appraisal. If your home has three bedrooms and a family room, and a home that sold recently in your neighborhood has three bedrooms, no family room but has a formal dining room instead, it's possible that it could still be used as a comp. Particularly in a slow market when there aren't a lot of recently sold homes to use as comparables, you would look at overall balance when comparing similar homes.

How to Find Comparable Homes for Your Market Appraisal

Of course it isn't possible to get a private tour of all the homes that have been sold in your neighborhood, but fortunately there's a much better alternative.

Each state has a Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, which is a database of all homes that are currently on the market or that have been sold within the past 1-2 years. You have to be a licensed realtor to access the complete database, but in almost all states now there are real estate companies that make a large part of the MLS available through their web sites. The amount of detail they include varies widely, but it's possible to find a surprising amount of MLS data through the Internet today. You probably won't find a lot of information about homes whose sales are final, but if you use the data on homes currently on the market you can still get a very good sense of what the current real estate market is like in your area.

To find web sites that offer this service, search on the phrase "multiple listing service" and include your state, city or county. You might have to be patient and look through several web sites before finding the information you need. Realtors make the MLS available as a service to homebuyers, and have no incentive to provide information to sellers who are trying to sell their own home.

In addition to information about a home's features, the full MLS database also contains information about property taxes, how long a home has been on the market (or was before it was sold), and what the home's original asking price was.

This is useful information to have, because it can help you learn from other's mistakes before you decide what your asking price will be. If you see a home that was on the market for six months or more before it was sold and the final sale price was significantly below the original asking price, it was probably overpriced to begin with. This is a serious mistake you want to avoid making.

How Pricing Your Home too High Can Prevent a Quick Sale

After you've compared your home to several similar homes in a similar area and are pretty sure you know what it might sell for, resist the temptation to set your price more than a few percent above or below that figure. Putting your home on the market at the correct price is the best way to make sure that the right buyers will see your home.

Because of the amounts of money involved in a home purchase, typical homebuyers only want to look at homes that they know are in the price range they can realistically afford. Chances are they've been looking at quite a few homes recently, and have a pretty good idea of the kind of home they're qualified to purchase. If you price your home too high, expecting that a potential buyer will negotiate with you, you may be disappointed. Homebuyers qualified to pay your initial asking price are looking for homes that actually are in that price range, and are likely to walk away without making you an offer.

Should You Sse a Real Estate Agency?

There are two reasons why someone might not want to use a real estate agent to sell their home. One is that you may be uncomfortable with strangers walking through your home when you're not there, and that's a legitimate concern. Statistically, however, the chances of theft or damage to your home are extremely low, and every year millions of homes are sold this way without incident. But if you don't need to sell your home within a certain time frame, having your privacy may be worth the extra time it may take to sell your own home.

Of course, for most people, the main reason to sell your own home is to save the cost of the real estate agents' commission. Depending on which state you live in the commission on a home sale can be as much as 7%, paid by the seller, which is a lot of money. The fact is, most sellers who try to sell their own homes end up using an agent anyway when they realize how much work it can be and their home still hasn't sold. But if you've priced your home right and are good at marketing, you could very well be one of the homeowners who successfully sell their home this way.

If you do decide to list your home with a real estate agent one of the biggest advantages is that your home will become part of the Multiple Listing Service database, where all the real estate agents in your area will see it as soon as it goes on the market. Because buyers don't pay a commission, most work with an agent who decides what homes to show them based on their requirements. This could make your home available to literally hundreds more potential buyers than if you were to advertise it yourself.

Take Advantage of Free Resources Available

Even if you don't want to use an agency to sell your property, real estate agents offer free home market appraisals to anyone who's a potential client. There's no obligation to list your home with their agency, and you can learn a lot about your local real estate market from them. In fact, ask for a free market appraisal from two or three agents from different real estate companies. Even experienced agents may come to slightly different conclusions about what the asking price should be for your home, in which case somewhere in the middle is probably the right price for your home.

If you're even considering using a real estate agency to sell your home, by all means take advantage of this free service that they offer. It's an excellent way to begin the interview process, and if you've performed your own market appraisal you'll be better able to judge their results. There are no guarantees when it comes to selling a home, but the best way to increase your chances for a quick, successful sale is to price your home right, right from the start.