It's still a seller's market and if you've decided to sell your Needham MA home, you're probably thinking how much you can sell it for.

Knowing how much your home is worth makes it easier to determine the listing price, which is a very important factor in selling your home. Another reason you should find out your home’s value is to know if you can afford a refinancing.

There are several ways you can check your home's worth.

• Thanks to the Internet, there are plenty of online home valuation tools that offer free estimates for your home's worth. 

Take advantage of these free offers, but use their results only as the starting point for pricing your home. I hope you realize that free online valuation tools, though many of them claim they offer accurate estimates, are really inaccurate and can't determine your home's value especially if you've made upgrades to your property.

If you’ve added a deck or a patio, updated your kitchen counters, added a bathroom or finished the basement, these upgrades will add some value to your home, but they won’t reflect on the estimates the online valuation tool will send you.

• Another way you can find out how much your home for sale in Needham is worth is by comparing your home with properties in your area that have similar features. If, for example, you are selling a 3 bedroom Colonial home, you need to go around and look for homes for sale similar to your home. 

It will be so much easier to determine your home's worth if the property has the same amenities that you offer, but if not, you'd have to figure out the math of adding or removing one more bedroom or another bathroom. This method of doing the research yourself can be time-consuming and not practical especially if you don't have the time to do it.

• The third method is to get professional help in getting comparables. When you seek the help of a real estate professional like me, Sheila Moylan, you can get a better read on the comparables in your area.

That's because real estate agents can pull the records from multiple listing service or MLS. Using the MLS and other data records, we can create a comparative market analysis (CMA) that shows all the recently sold homes, homes currently available for sale, and even homes that have pending status.

This method is by far, among the three I have presented, the best way to figure out how much your Needham MA home for sale is worth. It’s also cost-effective.

• The fourth method is by getting a home appraisal. Typically, an appraisal is ordered by the lender to know the real market value of the home. As a home seller, you don't have to get a home appraisal but if you want to do it, be prepared to pay $600 or more. The appraisal cost depends on the size of the property being assessed.

When you know how much your Needham home is worth, you can make better decisions.

Are you planning to sell your home soon? Call me, Sheila Moylan, at (781) 559-4057 for a free home valuation.