The visit itself usually takes forty to sixty minutes. Joel measures and photographs the rooms, checks the age of the furnace, shingles, windows and hot water tank, looks at lot width and lane access, and asks what has been replaced and when. Bring receipts or permit numbers if you have them, because a documented improvement is easier to defend to a buyer and to an appraiser than a remembered one.
What comes back is a short written argument rather than a single figure. It lists the sold comparables used, the adjustments applied for age, size, condition and lot, and a recommended price range with a most likely outcome inside it. It also works backwards to your net, since seller closing costs generally run 4 to 6 percent of the sale price once commission, legal fees of $800 to $1,500 and adjustments are counted.
The reason it is done in person is simple. Online estimates and public records cannot see a renovation carried out without a permit, so a developed basement, a second bathroom or a rebuilt kitchen is missing from every automated number drawn on that data. Joel's hand-reviewed valuation counts the work you actually did, which is frequently the difference between a fair price and a low one.