Alameda County · Home Value
What Your Alameda County Home Is Worth
A real number from someone who has been in the houses, not an algorithm that has never seen your street.
Why the online estimate is wrong about your house
Automated estimates work from public records and broad patterns. They cannot see your block, your light, whether the remodel was done well, or what the house feels like when you walk in.
In Alameda County that limitation is severe, because the housing stock varies so much street to street. An algorithm comparing a restored island Victorian to a nearby tract house is comparing two things that share a zip code and nothing else.
Comparables chosen by someone who has been inside them
The value of a comparable sale depends entirely on whether it is genuinely comparable. Same bed count and similar square footage is where an algorithm stops. It is where the real work starts.
I live in this county and have worked it since 2006, so for most of it I have actually been in the homes I am comparing yours to. That is the difference between a number and a defensible number.
What you get
A written comparative market analysis naming the specific properties it is built on, with the adjustments explained so you can see the reasoning.
Three pricing strategies with honest trade-offs: aggressive to test the ceiling, market-matching, or below market to manufacture competition.
A ranked prep list separating the work that pays for itself from the work that does not.
It is free, it commits you to nothing, and no pitch is attached. Plenty of people who ask are two years out, and two years out is a better time to talk than two months out.
Pricing is a strategy, not a value
When any agent hands you a single number, the useful question is which strategy it represents. If they cannot answer that, the number is a guess wearing a suit.
More on valuations and on Alameda County.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the valuation free?
Yes, with no obligation. You get the analysis, the three strategies and the prep list whether or not you ever list with me.
Is a CMA the same as an appraisal?
No. An appraisal is a formal valuation by a licensed appraiser, usually ordered by a lender. A comparative market analysis is an informed opinion based on comparable sales, and it is free.
Alameda County
What home value looks like in Alameda County
Kate's home county. She lives in Alameda and has worked this side of the bay since 2006.
Alameda County covers a lot of very different markets. The island city of Alameda behaves nothing like Fremont, and Fremont behaves nothing like Berkeley.
- The homes
- Everything from pre-war housing in the inner East Bay, through post-war suburban stock down the 880 corridor, to newer construction in the Tri-Valley. Roughly forty miles end to end.
- Why people choose it
- Buyers who want Bay Area access without San Francisco or Silicon Valley prices, and who are willing to trade a bridge, a tube, a BART ride or a ferry for it.
- Getting around
- Multiple BART lines, ferry service to San Francisco from the western side, the 880 along the bay, and the 580 and 680 serving the Tri-Valley.
- Nearby
- Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro, Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, and the Tri-Valley cities of Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore.
The method
How we do it in Alameda County
Home Value: keep exploring
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