What’s your home actually worth?
Not an algorithm’s guess from public records. A real analysis of your actual house — what genuinely comparable homes on your street sold for, adjusted for your condition, your lot, and the things a computer can’t see.
Automated estimates are a starting point, not an answer.
They work from square footage, bed and bath counts, and recorded sale prices. On a tract home in a uniform subdivision, that gets reasonably close.
On the houses I mostly work with — a 1962 Los Altos ranch that’s never been updated, a Santa Cruz Mountains parcel on a well and septic, a Capitola bungalow three blocks from the beach — they can be off by six figures in either direction. They don’t know your kitchen is original. They don’t know the parcel behind you can’t be built on. They don’t know the last two “comparables” on your street were both off-market family transfers.
What I send you is a written analysis with the actual comps, the adjustments explained, and a range rather than a single falsely precise number. If the honest answer is “this isn’t a good moment to sell,” that’s what it will say.
What you get
- Recent comparable sales, with why each one is or isn’t truly comparable
- A realistic price range, plus where in that range your house likely lands today
- What’s worth doing before listing — and what absolutely isn’t worth the money
- Current days-on-market and absorption for your specific micro-market
- If you’re 55+, a note on how a Prop 19 base transfer would interact with your move
No cost, no obligation, and no pressure to list. Plenty of people ask for this two or three years before they move, which is honestly the right time to ask.
Request your analysis
I put these together by hand, so give me a day or two.
Before you ask
Is this really free? What’s the catch?
It’s free and there’s no catch. It takes me a couple of hours. Some of the people I do these for list with me eventually, most of them years later, and plenty never sell at all. That math works fine for me.
Will I get put on a call list?
No. I send the analysis, and if you have questions you can ask them. I don’t run drip campaigns and I don’t cold-call people who asked a question.
I’m years away from selling. Is it too early?
It’s the opposite of too early. Most of my downsizing clients start two or three years out, and the ones who plan that far ahead consistently do better — because sequencing, prep, and the tax questions all take time to get right.
What if the house needs a lot of work?
Then that’s the most useful part of the analysis. I’ll tell you what actually returns more than it costs and what doesn’t. Most sellers over-improve before listing.
Do you cover my area?
Santa Cruz County and Santa Clara County, both sides of the hill. The full list is here. If you’re outside it, tell me anyway and I’ll point you to someone good.
I’m settling an estate. Is this the same thing as a date-of-death appraisal?
No, and the difference matters. A CMA is a broker’s opinion of current market value. A date-of-death valuation for tax basis is a formal appraisal by a qualified appraiser, and a probate proceeding may require a probate referee. I can do the CMA and point you to the right appraiser. More on that here.
Not ready to move? Stay in the loop anyway.
Once a month: what actually sold on both sides of the hill, what changed in California property-tax law, and the occasional honest “don’t sell yet.” No listings spam. Unsubscribe whenever.
Rather just talk it through?
Sometimes the number isn’t really the question. If what you actually want is help thinking through what’s next, start there instead.
Book a What’s-Next Consultation