RISMEDIA, Nov. 30, 2007-RE/MAX International, Inc., announced that it is beta testing a new home valuation tool that will give consumers an idea of their home’s value based on similar home sales in the neighborhood.According to the company, the RE/MAX Neighborhood Valuation tool, a free service on www.remax.com, includes a comparison of the five closest home sales in any given area, a price trend analysis for the surrounding area and, if requested, a free comprehensive, Neighborhood Valuation Report which includes sale prices, school information and demographic data for the surrounding neighborhood. The tools have been in beta test since August 2007.
“There’s no substitute for an experienced real estate agent when it comes to buying or selling your home,” said Dave Liniger, RE/MAX International’s Chairman and Co-Founder. “But homeowners should be educated and involved in the process and RE/MAX has the most experienced agents, the most trafficked Web site of all real estate networks, and now the home valuation tools to help them buy or sell a home.”
Unlike other home valuation sites, RE/MAX says that the Neighborhood Valuation Report doesn’t provide an estimated value for a specific property. Instead, it provides a price range for comparable sold properties based on the sale price of those properties and emphasizes the importance of using a RE/MAX professional for a more accurate analysis of a home’s market value. The RE/MAX Neighborhood Valuation tools are expected to be out of beta test early next year.
“The RE/MAX Neighborhood Valuation reports are designed to educate consumers with valuable data of sold housing prices in their neighborhood,” says Kristi Graning, senior vice president of IT and eBusiness at RE/MAX International. “These are simple, yet powerful tools that will help homeowners understand the value of their homes so they can work together with an experienced real estate agent to price their home appropriately when they’re ready to sell.”
The RE/MAX Neighborhood Valuation tools are driven by data compiled from home sales nationwide and aggregated from a variety of reliable sources, primarily county courthouse deed transactions. The data spans a 14-month period and includes more than 60 million historical homeowner and mortgage records, dating back to 1981.
Engineers of the new tools hope to compile feedback on performance and ease-of-use during the beta test. Visitors who request a neighborhood valuation report can provide feedback via a link on the results page.
According to the company, RE/MAX continues to lead the industry with cutting-edge technologies like a comprehensive property search engine on a single Web site that offers more than 90% of all US home listings. Remax.com averages more than 2.7 million unique visitors a month, far more than any other national real estate brand. According to Hitwise.com RE/MAX was the second most searched real estate term in September 2007.
For more information, visit www.remax.com.
