The improvements that matter most are the ones an online estimate cannot see. HouseSigma and Realtor.ca price off public assessment data, which lags real work by years, so a renovated kitchen or a permitted basement suite often does not show up in an automated number at all.
Spending strategically beats spending broadly. A $10,000 to $15,000 kitchen refresh on a dated home tends to outperform a $30,000 addition that buyers did not ask for, and a two-family home with a legal secondary suite carries a different value profile than a single-family home entirely.
This is exactly the gap Joel Dyck's hand-reviewed valuation is built to close. He walks the property, documents permitted and unpermitted improvements, and compares against genuinely similar recent sales so your price reflects the work you actually did before it goes to market.