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Property value
Pages like this one usually promise an instant valuation. What they run is an automated valuation model — a statistical estimate built from public records that has never seen inside your house. It is a genuinely useful tool, and it is not an appraisal. This page explains the difference instead of performing the trick.
What the instant estimate actually is
An automated valuation model takes what is on public record — the county's description of the property, its sale history, the assessed value, and recent sales nearby — and fits a statistical relationship to it. Where the operator licenses multiple-listing data it can also see photographs and listing descriptions from the last time the property changed hands, which may be decades ago.
What it cannot see is everything that has happened since: the new roof, the failed foundation, the kitchen that was replaced, the tenant who was not gentle. Two identical records on paper can be a hundred thousand dollars apart in reality, and the model has no way to know which one is yours. That is not a flaw in the software; it is the boundary of what public data can support.
It is also not an appraisal. A lender underwrites on an appraisal — an opinion produced by a licensed professional who has been inside the property, written to a standard, with the adjustments to each comparable shown and defensible. An AVM can occasionally substitute for one on a low-risk loan, but that is the lender's decision about its own risk, not a statement that the two are equivalent.
Four ways to price a house
People use these words as synonyms and then argue about a difference of sixty thousand dollars. They answer different questions, for different audiences, with different standing.
| Method | Who produces it | What it sees | What it misses | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automated valuation modelAVM | A statistical model, run by software | Public records, tax assessments, prior sales, and multiple-listing data where the model has a license to it | The inside of the house. Condition, renovations, damage, layout, smell, noise, the neighbour’s scrapyard | Marketing, portfolio monitoring, and lender screening — occasionally an appraisal waiver on a low-risk refinance |
| Comparative market analysisCMA | A real estate agent | Recent nearby sales, active competition, and the agent’s own knowledge of what buyers are doing this month | Independence. The agent is pitching for the listing, and both optimism and caution are professional strategies | Setting an asking price before a sale |
| Broker price opinionBPO | A licensed broker, for a fee | Comparable sales plus at least a drive-by look at the property | The regulatory standing of an appraisal. Several states restrict what a BPO can be used for | Servicing decisions, short sales, portfolio reviews |
| Appraisal | A state-licensed appraiser, engaged independently of the loan officer | The property itself, inside and out, measured and photographed, with adjustments to each comparable written down and defended | Very little — but it is one qualified opinion on one day, and it can be appealed with evidence | Lending. It is the only one of the four a mortgage is normally underwritten on |
The form, honestly
It validates the address you typed and then shows you a sample report — the layout, the sections, the labels a real report has. It does not look your property up, because there is nothing here to look it up with: no data license, no county feed, no model, and no server to run one on.
The sample describes an invented property at an invented address. Your address is never compared to it, never stored and never sent anywhere. It leaves your browser only in the sense that it never gets there.
On a live site, the price of an instant valuation is almost always your contact details, and the report is the bait. It is worth knowing that before you type an address into one.
This form looks nothing up and sends nothing. It validates the address, then shows a clearly-labeled sample of what a property report contains. No valuation of your home is produced, here or anywhere else on this site.
Sample report — not your property
Nothing was looked up. The figures below describe 1 Example Street, Denver, Colorado — an invented address for a property that does not exist — and they were typed by hand to show what each section of a real report contains. They have no relationship to the address you entered, or to any address.
Illustrative example only — not a rate quote, not an APR offer, and not a commitment to lend.
If you do request one elsewhere
Judge a property report by how much of its own working it shows. The ones that give you a single confident number and no comparables are marketing; the ones that show the data are useful even when the estimate is wrong.
The single number is the least useful part. A real report gives a range and a confidence measure — the model’s own estimate of how wrong it is likely to be. A tight range in a uniform subdivision and a wide one on an unusual property mean very different things.
Which sales the estimate was built from, when they closed, how far away they were, and how they differ from the subject. A report that will not show its comparables is asking to be trusted rather than checked.
Every recorded transfer, the price each time, and any listings that were withdrawn or expired. This is public record in most counties and it is where the story of a property usually shows up.
What the county thinks the property is worth for tax purposes, which is usually neither current nor market value, and the exemptions applied to it. Useful mainly as a cross-check.
What the property might let for, if the model has enough rental data in the area. Relevant if you are weighing selling against holding, and the input to any debt-service coverage arithmetic.
The estimate minus what you owe. This is the number people actually want, and it is the one that needs your loan balance rather than a database — which is why it belongs in a calculator you control.
Almost nobody wants a valuation for its own sake. They want to know whether there is enough equity to stop paying mortgage insurance, to take cash out, to open a line of credit, or to sell and buy something else. Those are arithmetic questions with your own numbers in them, and they do not need anybody's database.
This is a demonstration website for a fictional lender. Copperline Home Loans does not exist, is not licensed anywhere, and cannot lend. Every rate, payment, schedule and person shown is illustrative. Nothing here is a quote, an offer, or a commitment to lend, and no form on this site sends, stores or transmits anything.