For many people, the first step in deciding to sell their home is trying to figure out what it´s worth, before calling an appraiser or inspector. Most people will hop on the family computer and try to find out what their home is worth over the Internet.

Does this work? Sort of. To find out an approximate value to your home, yes, you can use the Internet to get a ballpark figure. But to get an exact price, or even an asking price that you would take seriously, you need to go through the full home evaluation process that includes bringing out experts to properly evaluate the value of your home. Then and only then can you come up with a realistic asking price.

Let´s take a quick look at the information you CAN find over the Internet that can help you determine the price of your home.

• Actual home value sites. There are many different sites that are easy to find with a simple Google.com search that claim that they can tell you the value of your home. You simply input your address, the number of bedrooms and other details about your property and they will email you back a best guess as to the value of your home. While these sites do a lot of the leg work for you, they usually cost money and ask you to sign up for all sorts of newsletters and emails you don´t want to receive. If you don´t mind spending the money, these sites can help, but you can get all of the same information by doing the research yourself.

• National realty sites. There are a dozen or so national realty websites that allow you to look at homes in your area. These sites can be a big (and free) help when trying to figure out what your home is worth. These sites are very user friendly and come with a fully searchable database so that you can find homes near you. Simply type in your zip code and up will come every home in your general area. The key is to try to find homes that are as close to you as possible, as well as homes that are as similar to yours. Look for things like the same amount of square feet, bedrooms, amenities and if it has a garage or not. These sites work fairly well when it comes to figuring out your home´s value, but there are even better resources on the Internet you can use.

• Your local realtor´s website. Website building has gotten to be so easy that, chances are, your local realtor will have a website that you can use to try to figure out your home´s value. While it may not be as complex and easy to use as the national realty websites, your local realtor should also have a searchable database with dozens of homes near you that you can look at. Simply type in your address and up will come homes that are near you. Chances are, with a local realtor, you´ll find a much wider selection of homes near you then with a national site. Now that you have this list, do the same thing you did with the national site. Look for homes as close to you as possible and with the same qualities. Once you´ve got a good list of 5-10 homes, you can sit down and figure out a good ballpark estimate of what your home can go for in the current market.

Getting an exact asking price for your home over the internet is pretty much impossible, but you can use this fantastic, time saving technology to get a solid starting point. Just average out the asking prices you found and make sure you add a little here for amenities that you didn´t find with other homes and subtract a little there for amenities you might not have.

Once you have that number, you can go to your local realtor and set up all the proper inspections so that you can lock in your price. The Internet is a powerful tool for searching for and researching home prices, but its power is limited.

GBrey