factors at work. Understanding those factors allows them to be leveraged. There are several ways a home’s value is derived. Schools and school districts that have a higher than average rating are very important features with buyers in the Bay Area. For example, Los Gatos High School is one of the major competitors to Palo Alto and Gunn High Schools. Likewise, Lowell High School in San Francisco ranks as one of the best. And, some elementary and secondary schools such as Van Meter in Los Gatos are a tough competition for Moreland Schools in west San Jose. If your home is located within a particularly desirable school district, we would use that feature in your marketing! Internet connectivity is also an important feature. Many Silicon Valley workers have a home office and depend on reliable and fast internet service. A home within a dead zone can be a deal breaker if the wifi provider is known to be particularly undesirable. Many neighborhoods have been monopolized by certain internet carriers, whether or not they are top-notched, rendering consumers helpless to change to another carrier.
PROFESSIONAL APPRAISAL
Nothing determines the sales price of a piece of real estate but the price at which it sells. House pricing is not the same as pricing identical cans of tuna on the grocery store shelf or shares of stock valued and traded every day on the stock exchange. Real estate appraisal (“property valuation”) is the process of developing a perspective of value for real property. This is the market value — i.e., what a willing, reasonable buyer would pay for the property to a willing, reasonable seller. Real estate transactions generally require assessments because they happen infrequently and every real property is unique in features and characteristics.
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