There has been a recent upsurge in the popularity of web sites such as HouseValues or Zillow that allow you to enter an address and in a few moments receive a computer generated price evaluation of your property. Is this a serious way of determining what your house or condo is worth or an amusing modern day parlor game?

As a real estate agent in Incline Village, NV on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, I had to see for myself. So, I plugged in the addresses of some recent property sales right here in Incline Village. The graphics were nice and the information interesting, but the price evaluations were not even close to reality. For example, a house that closed escrow on 1/19/06 at $855,000 came back with a current market value of $1,058,657. Now that is a heck of a lot of appreciation in a market that has been flat all year long, if you believe the Internet estimate.

I tried this exercise for many other properties, including my own home that I purchased in June 2005 and was astounded that every single one was overvalued by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maybe this service works in areas with tract homes, but as far as Incline Village Real Estate is concerned it's not reliable.

It would be tragic for a seller to over-price their property by a large factor and not have it sell simply because they relied on this type of information from a web site rather than an unbiased evaluation based on a complete walk through of the property. If a seller overprices their property, they may well sit on their property for many months than if they had priced it right in the first place. How much you want for your property and what it will sell for are very often two different numbers.

The only way to truly get a good estimate of the fair market value of your property is to have a thorough comparative market analysis performed. This analysis will take into account not only the most recent comparable sales, but also other factors such as view, upgrades and remodeling, street noise and traffic, ease of access, compliance with local regulations and other things specific to your area.

Do not rely on the asking prices of the properties for sale in your neighborhood as a guideline, when it comes to pricing your property. The reason these properties are still for sale (especially if they have been on the market more than 60 days) is that they are probably overpriced. Only those properties that have actually sold and those deals that are currently in escrow can be used to write an accurate comparative market analysis.

When a listing agent makes a presentation to you, it's not the one who quotes the highest market value for your home who should get the listing. Rather, it's the agent who will do the best job of getting you fair market value while providing great service and working hard on your behalf every step of the way. You want the best representation and the highest fair market price, because you won't get the number that is out in dreamland.

So, have fun visiting these house valuation web sites and enjoy the nice graphs and charts. But do not consider the prices quoted to be accurate and if you really want to estimate the fair market value of a property, either hire an appraiser or have more than one real estate agent provide you with a thorough comparative market analysis and then draw your own conclusions. Properties sell for fair market value, not what someone wishes they will sell for or what some impersonal software program estimates they are worth.