4. What is your credit rating?

Home Appraisal Tips & Advice

December 22, 2008

California is once again rethinking Proposition 13, the law that bases home property taxes on the purchase price of a house. Will a new property tax law pass?

Home sale prices are down and most people have seen a loss of home value in their neighborhood. Can there be a hidden benefit?

Yes, the home selling market has slowed in the past year; however, houses are still being purchased on a daily basis. What is the secret to successful home selling?

By Karen Lawson

Home Worth Columnist

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You’re thinking about refinancing and want to know how much your home is worth. To get an idea, you can use an online home value calculator. These free calculator tools can help you estimate home equity and home worth, but are typically designed for convenience. If you proceed with refinancing, your mortgage lender will generally require a formal appraisal of your property.

Using Home Equity as a Financial Tool

Although many homeowners refinance their mortgage loans to eliminate adjustable interest rates and/or to lower their interest rates, it’s also possible to use refinancing as a way to pay off high interest rate consumer debt as well as for other purposes. A home value calculator can help you get an idea of how much home equity you have. Basically, home equity is the difference between the current value of your home and the amount you owe on any mortgage loans against your home. Home equity can fluctuate according to real estate market trends and other factors. If you’re planning to pay off debts with cash-out refinancing, it’s a good idea to put off promising repayment to creditors until your lender commits to refinancing your mortgage for a specific amount. If you’ve lived in your home long enough to have accumulated a large amount of equity, however, this may not be necessary.

Home Worth Key to Achieving Financial Goals

Home equity, which is related to home worth, can provide funding to start or build a business or for home improvements and other projects that can help you build wealth and convert your financial plans to reality. Home equity and home worth can be considered assets on their own, because they contribute to your overall financial security by providing a potential source of cash. Using home value estimate tools can be the initial step to providing you with the information you need to decide when and if to use cash-out refinancing to access funds from your home equity.

About the Author

Karen Lawson is a freelance writer with extensive experience in mortgage banking. She holds BA and MA degrees in English from the University of Nevada, Reno.