What’s your home worth? Find out with this innovative new do-it-yourself home valuation tool

No longer do you need to rely on websites that use a computer-generated algorithm created by programmers who have never been inside your home or visited your neighborhood. Now, there’s ChalkBug — a unique home valuation tool offered courtesy of Therese Swan, Alain Pinel Realtors. ChalkBug.com | tswan@apr.com | 408-656-8240.

When selling your home, one of the first things you need to do is determine value. Real estate agents who are familiar with your market are one of the best sources and can provide a thorough Competitive Market Analysis (CMA). There are also various websites you can go to that provide automated home valuations, but these sites have extreme limitations on both accuracy and personal input. They typically use computer generated algorithms to estimate home values but, of course, are extremely lacking in insights regarding individual homes and neighborhoods. ChalkBug solves these problems. Introducing ChalkBug

ChalkBug is a unique patent pending application that puts the power of home valuation into the hands of the homeowner. Designed by a nationally recognized real estate agent, with a background in application development, ChalkBug increases accuracy of home valuation by enabling those most familiar with their homes and neighborhoods to create their own set of comparables and perform their own valuation analysis.

“We designed ChalkBug to replicate the methodology that I have been using for the past 14 years in my real estate business to help my clients estimate home values. Now, the public can have access to the same tools and data,” said Therese Swan, a top producing agent out of the Alain Pinel Realtors Los Gatos office.

Swan was ranked #209 in the United States in the Wall Street Journal/RealTrends list for 2015 of the Top Individual Agents in the nation and is among the Top 100 Agents in the San Francisco Bay Area. How does it work?

ChalkBug leverages a comprehensive database of property sales activity that you can manipulate in a variety of ways in order to get the most accurate market information. The application is intuitive and easy to use, and you can get your results in a matter of seconds.

There is no fee to use ChalkBug, and you don’t need to register or maintain an account. Simply go to ChalkBug.com and proceed through the following steps. If you want more information before diving in, there’s a video on the home page that provides a brief demonstration.

Step 1: Enter your home address or the address of the property within Santa Clara County that you would like to valuate.

Step 2: Set search parameters for comparable homes, such as number of beds and baths, square footage and lot size, or use the ChalkBug defaults. You can also include such factors as number of months since closing date, physical proximity to your home, and zip code.

Step 3: After you’ve run your personalized search based on the filters you selected, you’ll see a list of properties with a status of either Active, Pending or Sold. You can view an image and slide show of each property in your search results, and remove from the list any you don’t believe to be an accurate comparison to your home. The address that you entered is depicted on the map in yellow to distinguish it from the comparables.

Step 4: Once you’re satisfied with your list of comparable properties, you can reference the Average Selling Price and Average Asking Price automatically generated by ChalkBug to help you establish a fair price for your house. You can then adjust your estimate based not only on the averages that ChalkBug provides, but also how you feel your home stacks up to the comparable properties after viewing the photos.

Using this approach, you can obtain a more accurate estimate of value than relying on an algorithm that was built by programmers who know nothing about your home, your neighborhood,

or the precise condition of the properties. In short, ChalkBug provides the tools and you rely on your own analytical ability that is far superior to current algorithmic approaches. Search by schools and scores.

In addition to offering accurate home valuation for sellers, ChalkBug can be used by home buyers as well. Other real estate websites may show you the school closest to a home for sale, but sometimes the closest school is not the assigned school. ChalkBug will show you the right school along with that school’s latest API score.

Similar to ChalkBug for sellers, ChalkBug for buyers is versatile and easy to use.

Step 1: Select a region or multiple regions you’re considering moving to within Santa Clara County. A list appears with all available homes in your selected regions.

Step 2: Filter the list first by the traditional parameters such as minimum price, maximum price, number of beds and baths, and square feet.

Step 3: Evaluate associated school districts by API scores and select the ones that would be acceptable to you. ChalkBug uses API scores from the last year the California Department of Education administered the API test.

Step 4: Apply your filters and review your search results. A map of all listings along with interactive images accompanies the list of available homes in your selected regions and school districts.

For more information, contact Therese Swan, Alain Pinel Realtors, tswan@apr.com, 408-656-8240.