Real NEastate: How do I know how much my Mayfair property is worth?

Q: I rent a three-bedroom home in Mayfair and my landlord said she’d sell it to me for $100,000. My bank said that my mortgage would be less than $600 a month. My rent is currently $800, so I’d definitely be saving money, but how do I know it’s even worth $100,000? Can you tell me what I should pay?

A: How much this property is worth depends on the address. There are 97 properties for sale in Mayfair from a low of $49,000 to a high of $199,900. The average sold price in Mayfair overall is $108,000. But how much your rental is really worth depends on your exact location in Mayfair.

I broke the averages down by location between what’s listed in the Multiple Listing Service as Mayfair, East Mayfair and West Mayfair; here’s the difference in price:

  • West Mayfair: The average sold price in the last four months is $127,500 with homes that have sold as low as $73,000 and as high as $169,900.
  • East Mayfair: The average sold price in the last four months is $110,600 with homes that have sold as low as $35,000 and as high as $139,000.
  • “Plain” Mayfair: The average sold price in the last four months is $93,600 with homes that have sold as low as $43,000 and as high as just $93,000.

There’s definitely room for error in these numbers because some real estate agents do simply list a home as “Mayfair” without specifying which side. But if you don’t take these numbers at face value, there’s still a value difference inside this general neighborhood.

Real Estate is local and can even differ from block to block. No one can count on generalizations made of any neighborhood, no matter how detailed. On the surface, it sounds like buying your rental property for $100,000 could be a good deal in either side of this neighborhood in this market, but you’d be smart to consult a real estate agent and get a comparative market analysis of your exact property address.

Good Luck!

Stacey McCarthy is a real estate agent with the McCarthy Group of Keller Williams. Her Real NEastate column appears every Wednesday on NEastPhilly.com. See others here. Read other NEast Philly columns here.

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