The amount you can borrow will depend directly on the value of your seaside home. It is critical to know what your home is worth prior to moving forward with plans to refinance, obtain a home loan, or put your seaside home up or sale.
One way to do this is to determine the market value of the seaside property. A simple way to do this is to look at other comparable seaside homes in the same neighborhood and see what prices they have been sold recently. The Internet or real estate agents are effective and efficient resources for this purpose, and will most likely come at no cost to you.
Another option is to have the home appraised. You’ll have to hire a licensed appraiser who will then measure the home, examine the features of the home, construction quality, design, and the surrounding neighborhood to establish a value for the home compared to other homes that have sold in the last six months. An appraiser will usually charge between $300 and $500 for this service.
An appraiser can also tell you the replacement value of the property. This is how much an appraiser estimates it will cost to build a similar house on an unoccupied lot. The appraiser will take the age of the home into account to make a better estimate with deterioration and depreciation in mind.
One important thing that many homeowners have a hard time understanding is that homes appraised value, replacement cost, and worth are three completely different numbers. The homes worth is based on what a buyer is willing to pay for a home and is generally based on market conditions. In a red hot market it is not uncommon for worth and a homes appraised value to be higher than the replacement cost. While in a slow market the homes appraised value and worth will likely be less than the replacement cost especially if inflation is high.
Final Thoughts
Once you have established your seaside homes estimated value, your real estate agent can assist you in setting a sales price that will allow you some room to negotiate any needed repairs or negotiations.
Hubert Miles is the founder of Waterfront Houses USA, an online advertising service that provides Seaside Home and Seaside Property in the US and Canada.