Send the address and the acreage.Get a free valuation with the reasoning attached.
Tell us where the property is, roughly how much of it there is, and what you are trying to decide. What comes back is an opinion of value from a Virginia real estate licensee, with the reasoning that produced it.
Four things, and the fourth one matters most.
A valuation starts from four things. Three of them most owners already carry in their head.
- Where it is. A street address does it. So does the county's tax map or parcel number, or a pin dropped on a map.
- How much of it there is. Deeded acreage if you know it. If the deed and the tax card disagree, say so.
- What is on it. A house, a barn, pasture, timber, a well, a septic system, a pond, or nothing at all.
- What you want to know. A number to decide on is a different job from a number to list on.
Send what you have. The footprint is Carroll, Grayson, Wythe, Pulaski, Montgomery and Floyd counties, plus the City of Galax.
An opinion of value, and how it was reached.
What comes back is an opinion of value: a number, and the reasoning that produced it, from a Virginia real estate licensee working off the parcel itself, the county record and what has sold nearby.
The reasoning is the half worth reading: what carries the number, what works against it, and what cannot be settled from a desk. Access, utilities, topography, soil and zoning are read one at a time, and each of them is worked through in the five things we read before we price land.
Lowell calls or emails, usually with a few questions first. They are the difference between a number pulled off a map and one that accounts for the culvert, the shared drive, or the strip the neighbor mows. Ask for it in writing and it comes in writing.
A licensee's valuation may not be called an appraisal, and the Code says so.
Virginia exempts from appraiser licensing a licensed real estate salesperson who values real estate for a fee in the ordinary course of business, then limits how that person and that value may be presented. Both halves sit in Va. Code 54.1-2010 A 1.
1. A real estate broker or salesperson licensed in the Commonwealth who, in the ordinary course of business, provides a valuation or analysis of real estate for a fee
Va. Code 54.1-2010 A 1
And here is the limit.
however, such person shall not hold himself out as a real estate appraiser, and the valuation shall not be referred to as an appraisal and shall not be used in lieu of an appraisal performed by a licensed appraiser.
Va. Code 54.1-2010 A 1
That limit is the condition of the exemption. The matching prohibition sits one section later, at Va. Code 54.1-2011.
except as provided in § 54.1-2010 and in subsections C and E of this section, it shall be unlawful to engage in the appraisal of real estate or real property for compensation or valuable consideration in this Commonwealth without first obtaining a real estate appraiser's license
Va. Code 54.1-2011
Two documents, then, and neither replaces the other. An owner deciding what to do wants an opinion of value, early and at no cost. A lender whose loan needs an appraisal wants it later, from a licensed appraiser. Virginia has no statute of its own called a broker price opinion; the nearest the Code comes is the valuation-or-analysis exemption above.
It costs nothing and it commits you to nothing.
There is no fee for a valuation and no paperwork attached to asking for one. It does not put the property on the market or sign you to anything.
Owners ask for reasons that have nothing to do with a sign in the yard: an estate to divide, a refinance being considered, a neighbor who keeps asking about the back field. What it costs to list is a separate conversation, and those terms go in writing before anything goes on the market. The cost question is answered on the page about selling a home on rural acreage, and selling land in Southwest Virginia covers the land side.
Asking for a number does not make you anyone's client either. Under 18VAC135-20-220 a licensee holding substantive discussions about a specific property with a buyer or seller who is neither his client nor represented by another licensee must say whom he does represent, and the rule is specific about when.
such disclosure must be made in writing at the earliest practical time, but in no event later than the time specific real estate assistance is first provided.
18VAC135-20-220
Land, a house, a farm, or commercial ground.
The same request covers four jobs. They are priced differently and sold to different buyers, so say at the start which one you have.
Land and acreage
A homesite, a wooded tract, a hunting parcel, or ground with a division in it. Say which, and whether anyone has tried to split it before. See selling land in Southwest Virginia.
A house
Send the acreage with the address. How much ground comes with a rural house changes the job. See selling a home on rural acreage.
A farm
Say how much of it is in production and what conveys with the ground. See selling a farm or acreage.
Commercial or development ground
Name the road it fronts, the utilities at the site if you know them, and what the ground is used for now. See selling commercial property.
The slider gives a ballpark. A person gives the number.
The homepage carries a small estimator: set a county, an acreage, a land type, frontage, utilities and a standout feature, and it returns an instant range. The line under the result calls that a ballpark, which is the honest word for it.
It shows which levers move land value at all, and that much is real. What it cannot do is look at your parcel: whether the frontage is a right of way, whether the flat part is the floodplain, whether an entrance would land on a blind curve.
Set it if you want somewhere to start tonight, then send the parcel. The land value estimator on the homepage is a first look; a free valuation is what replaces it.
What a number does not settle.
A valuation is an opinion about price. It is not a survey, not a title search, and not a permit.
When a sale includes a home, the Residential Property Disclosure Act starts from buyer beware rather than warranty; the Act reaches residential property of one to four dwelling units, not a vacant tract. Va. Code 55.1-703 names what an owner is not representing, and for the ground under a house this item does the most work.
2. The owner makes no representation with respect to current lot lines or the ability to expand, improve, or add any structures on the property
Va. Code 55.1-703 B 2
It then tells the purchaser what to do instead.
purchasers are advised to exercise whatever due diligence a particular purchaser deems necessary, including obtaining a property survey and contacting the locality to determine zoning ordinances or lot coverage, height, or setback requirements on the property.
Va. Code 55.1-703 B 2
What's my property worth?
Send a few details and Lowell will come back with an honest read. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Good questions, straight answers.
Can I get the valuation in writing?
Yes. Ask, and it comes in writing, with the reasoning beside the number rather than a bare figure. Some owners want something they can forward to a sibling, a partner or an accountant. Others would rather hear it once on the phone.
All I have is a tax map number. Is that enough?
It is. A tax map number gets Lowell to the parcel in the county record as well as a street address does, and a pin on a map works too. If you have none of those, describe the road and the nearest crossroad.
Can I give a valuation to my lender?
You can send a lender anything you like, but it cannot stand in for an appraisal. A lender that needs an appraisal orders it from a licensed appraiser. Va. Code 54.1-2010 A 1 says a salesperson's valuation shall not be referred to as an appraisal or used in place of one.
Can you value a property I am thinking of buying?
Yes. The read runs the same way from the buyer's side: what the ground can carry, what the county record shows, and whether the number being asked stands up against it. Send the address or the listing and say what you intend to do with it.
Do I have to list with Lowell afterwards?
No. A valuation is not tied to a listing agreement and there is nothing to sign to get one. Some owners take the number, sit with it for a year and call back. Some take it to another agent. Some decide not to sell at all.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 54.1-2010, the exemption from appraiser licensing for a licensed broker or salesperson's valuation in the ordinary course of business Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 54.1-2011, Necessity for license (Title 54.1 Chapter 20.1, Real Estate Appraisers) Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-703, Residential Property Disclosure Act: what the owner does not represent and the purchaser's due diligence Virginia General Assembly
- 18VAC135-20-220, disclosure of brokerage relationships Virginia Real Estate Board