Automated Valuation vs. a Broker's Opinion of Value

01. Automated valuation

Arithmetic. A program picks recorded sales near a home that match on size, bedrooms, distance and date, works out a range per square foot and applies it to the home. Nobody has looked at the house. It cannot see condition, a remodel, an unpermitted addition, the view, the lot, or what is pending but not yet recorded. The estimates on the big portals are this kind of number, and so are the automated valuations this site prepares on request.

What it is not: an opinion of value, an appraisal, or advice on what to list or offer at. No licence stands behind it and no one is accountable for it.

02. Broker’s opinion of value

A judgement, signed. Tim McMullen, a licensed California real estate broker (CA DRE #02016832), chooses the comparables by hand, adjusts for what the records cannot see, weighs what is pending and listed right now, and puts a name and a licence on the number. In California, saying what a specific home is worth is a licensed activity, and this is the licensed version. On this site it is called a Comp Report once Tim has signed it, and it is the number to take into an offer, a listing decision or a negotiation.

What it is not: an appraisal. A broker’s opinion is an agent’s professional judgement, not a regulated report.

03. Appraisal

A regulated report. Prepared by a state-licensed or certified appraiser to professional standards, usually because a lender, a court or an estate requires one. Neither of the numbers above replaces it.

How you get one: your lender orders it when you finance a purchase or a refinance; for a probate, a divorce or a tax matter, an attorney or an accountant will say when one is needed. Tim can tell you what to expect but does not prepare appraisals.

On this site

Which number is which, and where it appears.

Where	What the number is	Who stands behind it
A home’s record page	No value at all. Recorded sales, facts from the county record, and counts and medians with the sample behind them.	Contra Costa County records and the MLS
An automated valuation page	A range worked out from recorded sales the engine picked. Prepared on request, kept on its own private page, and labelled “Automated valuation” in its first line and its footer.	The engine. Not reviewed by an agent.
A Comp Report	A broker’s opinion of value: comparables chosen by hand, adjusted, signed. Prepared for the owner or buyer who asked; also the signed opinion of value on every Investor Exchange listing.	Tim McMullen, CA DRE #02016832
The AI property review, the net sheet, a comparison	The member’s own picks and arithmetic: recorded sales they chose, costs they entered. The pages say so, and none of them states what the home is worth.	The member who built it
Ask the market (the assistant)	Facts, arithmetic and navigation. Asked what a specific home is worth, it says that is Tim’s call and shows the way to ask.	—
A developer model	Arithmetic on recorded sales of new builds, with every input shown and changeable.	The engine, from inputs the reader sets

We do not publish an estimated value on any home’s record page. The only numbers attached to a specific home live on their own private pages, and each one says, in the first line, which of the three it is. The full sourcing is on the methodology page.

Why keep them apart

A number with a name on it is a different product.

Portal estimates are everywhere and they are free because nobody is accountable for them. A broker’s opinion of value is signed, and the person who signed it will stand in a negotiation behind it. We keep the two apart so that you always know which one you are reading, and so that the free arithmetic on this site is never mistaken for the licensed judgement it is not.

Ask Tim what your home is worth → Review a home with the recorded sales → See what has sold

The Comp Report is free and needs no listing. Tim McMullen, Broker, CA DRE #02016832.