Finding Help With Valuing Your Assets

You can get a good sense of the market value of your house on your own

For local information you can ask a real estate agent to do a “comparability analysis”. Using their database they can look at recent sales and offer a detailed list of comparable houses. The list will include how your house differs (for better or worse) from others that are similar. They will offer the estimated market value of your house adjusted up or down based on standard factors such as the size of the lot, number of bedrooms, amenities such as fireplaces etc. Insurance companies use this service to set maximum policy coverage amounts.

Maryland Government Information:  You can go to the Maryland Department of Assessment and Taxation and obtain information about your house.  You can learn the assessed value of your home, which is one element in deciding the “market” value.

Advice on valuing your home:   Our Family Place gives advice about setting the value of your home. They also list methods of valuing your home and suggest helpful reading materials.

For a fee, Homeprice will give you a report valuing your home.  You can view a sample report and get more information about their services at their site.

The Homegain website provides valuation services but you must become a registered member. You can become a registered member for no charge, but we recommend reading the “Terms of Use Agreement” very carefully. If you register with this group a local real estate agent will likely contact you. You do not have to accept the proposals made by these agents, but this may become annoying for you.

Yahoo! Real Estate  Another useful website which searches a database of 15 million home purchase records to come up with recent sales in your area. This is one factor in developing a market analysis of the value of your house.

You can obtain the value of your car on your own

You can obtain the Kelly Blue Book value of your used car.  Free estimates of “trade in” and “retail” value of used cars are offered.

You can also get detailed analysis (for a fee) from Consumer Reports.  They offer a used car price service-a page report with general valuation plus a formula to apply to the general cost figures for your car (cost $10).   

You can learn information about the value of your  mutual funds and stocks

The best way to get a snapshot of the value of any mutual funds or stocks owned by you and your spouse is to look at the financial section of a newspaper.  If your local newspaper does not carry this information, look for the Wall Street Journal.  Remember that these prices change daily but it will help to give you a general idea about their worth.

A Less Common but Important Asset can be a Business or Professional Practice 

If you believe that a business or a professional practice is part of your marital assets, you may need an appraiser.  An appraiser can help if you and your spouse disagree on the value of the business/practice or you are not sure how much it is worth.  If a business is likely to have little or no value, an appraiser may be willing to offer a preliminary review for a low fee.  If the cost of the appraisal is greater than the value of the business, it probably does not make sense to go ahead.   

Where to start - Two professional associations of appraisers have standards that their members follow.  

The Institute of Business Appraisers is a professional society that provides accreditation and training for business evaluation. The web site includes a searchable directory of members (by state, name, area code, and zip code), code of  ethics and publications for sale.  

The American Society of Appraisers is a professional society with the following disciplines: Appraisal Review and Management,  Business Valuation, Gems and Jewelry, Machinery and Technical Specialties, Personal Property and Real Property. Their web site includes a searchable directory by name, discipline and geographic area (state, city, area code and zip code).  Publications are available for purchase. 

If you are not sure what you want to do, you can search the web.  Some organizations may not follow national standards and you should be wary of paying money to an appraiser about whom you know very little.

Source: Maryland State Law Library (MSLL)

Last date of legal review 01/17/08 (PLL/M.A.J)

About this website. The Maryland State Law Library, a court-related agency of the Maryland Judiciary, sponsors this site. The website was developed (1999-2007) as part of an access to justice initiative by the Maryland Legal Assistance Network (MLAN) in collaboration with a number of legal services providers serving low and moderate income Marylanders.  In the absence of file-specific attribution or copyright, the Maryland State Law Library may hold the copyright to parts of this website. You are free to copy the information for your own use or for other non-commercial purposes with the following language “Source: Maryland's People’s Law Library – www.peoples-law.org. © Maryland State Law Library, 2007.”

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