The three values a Shirley house has
Think of it as what the house is worth finished, what it is worth as it stands if you list it, and what it is worth to somebody buying it today for cash.
The gap between the first and the third is not somebody's profit margin. It is the cost of the work, the months of carrying the property while it is done, the commission at the end, and the risk that the work uncovers something worse. On a Shirley house in decent condition those costs are small and the three numbers sit close together. On a house that needs real work they are large and the numbers spread.
Why online estimates miss
An automated estimate works from square footage, bed and bath counts, and nearby sales. It cannot see the roof, the boiler, the electrical service, the water in the basement or the addition that was never permitted.
Since those are precisely the things that decide whether a lender will finance the house, an automated figure is least reliable exactly where you most need it to be right. On a well-maintained Shirley house it is a reasonable starting point. On a house that needs work it is describing a property you do not own.
How to get all three numbers, free
Ask a local agent for a comparative market analysis. Most will do one at no charge and it costs you nothing but an hour. Ask for two figures: what it would fetch renovated, and what it would fetch listed as it stands today.
Then get a written cash offer, from us or from anyone. A real one arrives as a figure rather than a range, and you should be able to take it to the agent for a view.
With those three in front of you the decision is arithmetic rather than guesswork, and you are not relying on any single party's characterization of the market.
The four things that decide the figure
Condition of the mechanicals rather than the cosmetics. A dated kitchen costs you a little. A roof at the end of its life, an old electrical service or a boiler that will not pass costs you the financed buyer entirely, which costs far more.
Whether the paperwork is clean. Open permits, unpermitted additions and violations on file surface in the title search and stall financed sales.
The specific street, not the town average. And how much time you have, which is the variable sellers never think of as part of the valuation but which decides which buyers you can reach.
Appraisals, market analyses and offers
They answer different questions. An appraisal asks whether a lender is safe advancing a given sum against the property. A market analysis asks what it would sell for on the open market. An offer says what one buyer will actually pay today.
All three can be right at once and still differ by a wide margin, and none of them is the truth about your house in any absolute sense. What you need for a decision is the market analysis and at least one written offer, because those are the two numbers that describe the paths genuinely open to you.
Why Shirley cash offers come in at different numbers
Three reasons, and they are worth being able to tell apart. Different views on repair cost, which is legitimate. Different exit plans, where a renovator can usually pay more than somebody assigning the contract on. And different intentions about whether the number holds.
That last one is why the highest offer is not automatically the best one. Ask each buyer whether the figure is binding and whether it can change after an inspection, and weigh the answers alongside the number. An offer you can rely on at a slightly lower figure is frequently worth more than a high one you cannot.
Getting a number on a Shirley house without committing to anything
Nothing about asking what your house is worth should oblige you to sell it, to us or to anybody. We put a figure in writing within 24 hours, it costs nothing, and there is no expiry designed to hurry you.
People take our number, go away, talk to family, get an agent's view and come back months later or not at all. That is the normal pattern and it is fine. A number you are pressured to act on immediately is not a valuation, it is a tactic, and you should treat any deadline attached to one accordingly.
Common questions
Will you tell me what my Shirley house is worth even if I do not sell to you?
Yes. We will give you a written figure on the Shirley house and an honest view of what listing would net after commission, repairs and the wait. If that comparison favors listing, we will say so.
Why is your number lower than the online estimate?
Because the estimate is pricing a version of your house with a working roof, current mechanicals and a clean municipal file, and ours is pricing the house that exists. Where those two are the same house the numbers are close. Where they are not, the gap is the work.
Do I have to let you inside to get a number?
Preferably, because a figure from an interior walkthrough is one we can hold. Where the house is unsafe or inaccessible we will work from the exterior, photographs and whatever reports exist, and say plainly that the number carries more uncertainty.