3 minute read
AT A GLANCE
When someone asks what their house is worth at a party, my honest answer is "I have no idea". A real SWFL valuation needs three closed comps in your specific subdivision inside the last ninety days, an on-site walkthrough, a listing-prep read, and for condos, the insurance and SIRS reserve reality. Bonita Springs alone has thirty-seven subdivisions with twelve or more closed sales this year and a forty-two-fold spread between the highest and lowest medians, so a guess at the zip-code level is meaningless. Start with our free home valuation tool, then let Kim and me do the free in-person walk that produces the number that actually matters.
Every Realtor has this happen. You show up to a friend of a friend's party, someone hands you a glass of wine, and within ninety seconds a person you have never met is asking what their house is worth.
They mean well. It is small talk. They are curious. In their head, this is exactly like asking a doctor about a weird mole. Quick and free with no commitment on their end.
Here is what I have learned to say. "I have no idea."
Kim used to try to answer it. She would ask two follow-up questions, guess a range, and get pinned to the number for the rest of the evening. Once she gave a couple in Estero a range that turned out to be twelve percent low. They remembered the range. They did not remember the caveats. They mentioned it in front of their listing agent three months later, and I got a very polite email.
So now, at parties, my answer is "I have no idea." Because I actually have no idea. Nobody does, not without doing the work.
Here is what the work is.
A real valuation on a SWFL home in 2026 needs, at minimum, three closed comps in your specific neighborhood inside the last ninety days. Not your zip code. Not "the area." Your specific subdivision, your specific price band, and your specific condition. Bonita Springs alone has thirty-seven subdivisions with twelve or more closed sales in the last twelve months, and the median price between the highest and the lowest is a forty-two-fold spread. A cocktail-party guess in "Bonita Springs" is meaningless.
The valuation also needs an on-site walkthrough. Zillow does not know that your kitchen was renovated in 2023. It also does not know that your master bathroom still has the beige carpet from 1997. Both matter. Neither shows up on the property card.
The valuation needs a current listing-prep read too. Sellers who bring their home to market ready to show, priced correctly the first week, close in a very different range than sellers who list as-is and see what happens. The gap between those two outcomes in Bonita right now is running about eight to ten percent on the median.
The valuation needs the current insurance and reserve reality if you are in a condo, because a well-funded SIRS-compliant building sells at a different price than an out-of-compliance building next door.
None of that fits in a cocktail-party answer. So I refuse to give one.
What I do offer, when someone corners me at a party, is this. Kim and I put a home valuation tool on the Hawley Team site that pulls the current MLS comps for your specific address, and if you want a real number after you play with the tool, we will come do the on-site walk and give you an actual read. That live in-person read is the number that matters, and it is free.
The tool is at https://search.teamhawley.com/seller. You put in your address, it pulls the current MLS comps for your specific location, and you see what the algorithm thinks. That is the starting point. The finishing point is the walkthrough.
If you want the walk, call Kim at 239-420-9027 or text me at 239-355-4040. We do these all week. There is no obligation. No pitch. No listing agreement stuffed into your hand at the end. Just an honest read on what the current market is telling us about your specific house.
And at the next party you go to, please, do the Realtor a favor. Ask what we do for fun instead. We will love you for it.
