What a Free Home Evaluation Includes in Calgary

“What is my home worth?” is the first question almost every seller asks me. The honest answer is: whatever a buyer will pay for it today, and the best way to estimate that is to look at what buyers have just paid for homes like yours. Here is what my free home evaluation includes, how comparable sales (“comps”) set your price, and why your City assessment or an online estimate can be quite different.

What is a free home evaluation, exactly?

It is a comparative market analysis, or CMA. The Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) allows real estate professionals to prepare a CMA for clients and people thinking about selling. Under RECA’s rules, a CMA gives you a range of value, not a formal appraised value, and it must not be used for financing, court cases, income tax or financial reporting. In plain words: it is a pricing tool to help you decide whether and when to sell and what to list at.

What do I look at in your home?

• The basics: style (bungalow, two-storey, bi-level, townhouse, condo), above-grade size, bedrooms and bathrooms, garage and lot.
• The basement: undeveloped, developed, separate entrance, or a suite on the City’s registry. A legal suite and an unapproved one are not valued the same; my basement suite guide explains why.
• Age and updates: roof, furnace, hot water tank, windows, kitchen and bathrooms, with the year each was done.
• Condition: what a buyer’s inspector would notice, inside and out.
• Location details: backing onto a park or pathway, a busy road, a corner lot, or the view.
• For condos: monthly fees, what they include, parking and storage.

How do comparable sales set your price?

I pull recent sold homes in your community that are as close to yours as possible: same style, similar size and age, similar basement. Then I adjust each one up or down for the differences. If a comparable home sold with a developed basement and a double garage and yours has neither, your value sits below that sale; if yours has a newer kitchen, it moves up. The more recent and the more similar the sale, the more weight it gets.

I also look at two other groups. Active listings are your competition: buyers will compare your home with them on the same weekend. Expired or long-on-market listings show the prices buyers did not accept. Put together, these give a realistic range, and we pick a list price inside it based on your timing and goals.

How is it different from an appraisal?

An appraisal is done by a licensed appraiser, and in Alberta only appraiser licence holders can provide appraisal services. Lenders usually order an appraisal when a buyer gets a mortgage, to confirm the home supports the loan. A CMA helps you set a price; an appraisal helps a lender check one. If a buyer’s appraisal comes in low, a well-supported price based on solid comps makes that conversation much easier.

Why isn’t my City assessment the same as my home’s value?

The City of Calgary assesses every property for tax purposes using market value at a fixed date: the 2026 assessments reflect value as of July 1, 2025, and the property’s condition as of December 31, 2025. Notices are mailed in January, and you have a 67-day Customer Review Period to question your assessment. For 2026, the City’s median assessment was $706,000 for a single residential property and $347,000 for a condo. Your assessment does not know about the market since that date, or about the kitchen you renovated inside, so it is a reference point, not a list price.

What about online home value estimates?

Automated estimates are a quick starting point, but they cannot walk through your home. They do not see a new furnace, a separate-entrance basement, a tired roof or a great backyard. Use them for curiosity, and use a CMA built on real, recent comparable sales for decisions.

How can I get the most accurate evaluation?

• List your upgrades with years and receipts, and any permits.
• Find your Real Property Report and note any decks, garages or sheds added since. My selling checklist explains why it matters.
• Be upfront about issues like an old roof or a past water leak. It is better priced in now than negotiated later.
• Let me see the home in person or on a video call. Photos and a walk-through make the range tighter.

Want to know what your home is worth? Let’s talk.

I help sellers across NE, SE, NW and SW Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere, Balzac, Langdon, Cochrane and Okotoks, in English, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu. Call or text me, or fill in the free home evaluation form, and I will send you a price range based on recent comparable sales, with no obligation to list.

Frequently asked questions