Market appraisal, registered valuation, or online estimate

Three names, three jobs

If you are selling in Rotorua, someone will offer you a number: a website, a rates notice, a friend, or an agent. It is useful only if you know the job it was built for. This guide separates three of them. A market appraisal from a licensed local agent. A registered valuation from a registered valuer. An online estimate from an automated model. They are not interchangeable. A fourth figure, the council rating or CV, is for rates. The longer comparison, including the CV, is on how much is my Rotorua house worth. This page does not name the websites that publish estimates.

Market appraisal

A licensed local agent's written opinion of what buyers would pay now. They usually visit. It is free for you. It is not a registered valuation, and a lender will not usually accept it instead of one.

Registered valuation

A report from a registered valuer, for a stated purpose such as lending or a legal matter. You pay the valuer. The firm sets the fee. We do not provide this and we do not quote a price for it.

Online estimate

An automated model of land size, floor area, bedrooms, and sales nearby. Often free to look at. It has not stood in the house.

A market appraisal from a licensed local agent

This is the free one, and it is what the form requests. An agent licensed under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008 writes a view of what buyers would pay now. A useful appraisal follows a visit, because a Rotorua buyer pays for things the street does not show: a lake glimpse, the bush edge in Lynmore, a steep drive in Ngongotahā, a tight section in Glenholme, the garage, and the kitchen. Call it a market appraisal. It is an opinion. It is not a registered valuation and not an official value.

Rotorua Property Value does not prepare it. We introduce you to one licensed local agent. The appraisal should be realistic and, where they can, supported by sales they consider comparable. If they cannot find a clean comparison, they should say so. You can disagree, you can get another, and you do not have to list. It is free for you. An agent may pay Rotorua Property Value a referral fee. You do not pay that fee. That line is on the form and in the privacy notice. The visit is not a building survey. It will not sign off weathertightness, geothermal rules, or unconsented work. It is a selling opinion, including whether to sell privately or with an agent.

What to have ready

You do not need to style the house. Let the agent see the rooms, the garage, and the outside. A short list of renovations, with rough dates, is enough. If you have the title, a LIM, or a builder's report, leave them out. If the land is leasehold or Māori freehold land, or work was never consented, say so. You do not need a hoped-for price for them to copy.

A registered valuation

A registered valuation is a report by a registered valuer. You commission it and you pay for it. This page states no fee range, because the firm sets it. The report should name its purpose. A lender often wants one. A lawyer may want one for an estate, a dispute, or relationship property. You do not need one merely to decide whether now is a sensible time to sell. You need one when the reader of the report requires that standard. An agent's appraisal does not replace it, and a valuer's report is not a substitute for a practical view of this month's buyers. The two can disagree. They were written for different readers.

Rotorua Property Value cannot provide a registered valuation. People search for a free house valuation. What we arrange is a free market appraisal from a licensed local agent. If you need the paid report, hire a registered valuer. If an agent, or someone connected to them, wants to buy your property, ask your lawyer about the independent valuation rule in that situation. We are not restating it as advice.

An online estimate

An online estimate uses land, floor area, bedrooms, and sales it treats as nearby. It has not been in the kitchen, so a poor outlook, a leasehold title, or geothermal ground is invisible, and a renovation can be missing. This site does not publish an estimate and does not name the sites that do. Use the figure as a prompt, not as the price you tell a buyer or a bank.

The district median is a different published number. It is the middle sale across Rotorua District in a month, on the house prices page. It is not an estimate of your house and not an appraisal. The suburb pages do not turn it into a local price.

Which one to use when you are selling

If you want to know what buyers might pay now, ask for the market appraisal. It is free, it is an opinion, and it does not oblige you to list. If a bank, a lawyer, or a relationship-property matter has asked for a valuation, hire a registered valuer and pay them. If you are only curious, an online estimate is a glance. The page on how a Rotorua price is worked out puts the council CV beside these three. Do not force the numbers to match.

None of the three is a builder's report, a LIM, or tenancy advice. The tenants guide and the costs guide cover those. The appraisal is not one of the selling bills.