If you received a report about your home

You got a value estimate from your agent. Here's exactly what it is.

Your real estate agent sends it, our software produces it, and it's built from real sales near you — not a guess. It's also not an appraisal, and there are things it can't be used for. Both of those are worth two minutes of your time.

What the number actually is

An automated estimate of what your home might sell for today.

Software looked at homes near yours that recently sold, scored them for how similar they are to yours, adjusted for the differences it can measure, and calculated a range. No person picked the sales or decided the number — which is exactly why your agent can send you one every quarter without it costing them a day's work.

Your report lists every sale it used, with the address, size, year built, distance from you and what it sold for. If you want to check its work, it's all printed there. That's deliberate — a number you can't interrogate isn't worth much.

Where the sales come from

This matters more than the arithmetic, because an estimate is only as good as what it's looking at.

The source

Your local MLS

The multiple listing service is the database real estate professionals use — the same one your agent searches. It records what a home actually sold for, when, and in what condition it was marketed.

Not this

Not public records alone

Many national estimates lean heavily on county records, which arrive late, say little about condition, and in some states don't record the price at all. That's a large part of why those numbers can feel so far off.

How current

As of the day it ran

Each report is calculated fresh when it's sent, from the sales on record that day — not a figure refreshed on a monthly schedule.

What it can and can't be used for

Please read the right-hand column before you rely on the number for anything that matters.

Useful for

  • Getting a sense of where your home sits in today's market
  • Deciding whether it's worth a conversation about selling
  • Seeing which homes near you have sold, and for how much
  • Starting a discussion with your agent, who knows things a computer doesn't

Not valid for

  • A mortgage, refinance or any lending decision
  • Property tax appeals
  • Divorce, probate, estate or any legal proceeding
  • Insurance purposes

This is not an appraisal.

The report is an automated estimate of value generated by a computer model. It is not the same as the opinion of value in an appraisal developed by a licensed appraiser under the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. No appraiser prepared, reviewed or approved it.

If you need a value for a loan, a tax appeal or a legal matter, you need a licensed appraiser. Your agent can point you to one.

When the number is likely to be off

Any honest automated estimate has blind spots. These are ours, and knowing them tells you how much weight to put on it.

Condition

The model can't see inside your home. A tired kitchen and a renovated one look identical to it if the public record doesn't say otherwise.

Improvements

A new roof, an addition, a pool put in last spring — if it isn't in the data, it isn't in the number.

Unusual homes

Acreage, a view lot, a custom build or anything genuinely uncommon has few true comparables, so the estimate is working with less.

Quiet markets

If little has sold near you recently, the model reaches further out and further back, and confidence drops accordingly.

If the number looks wrong to you, tell your agent.

They can add specific nearby sales you think are relevant, and those appear in your report in their own section. They won't change the automated number — that stays exactly as the model calculated it — but you'll see them side by side, and your agent can explain the difference. Often the gap is something the model couldn't know about your home.

Why your agent sent it

Because most people sell a home every several years, and agents who only make contact when they want a listing tend not to get one. Sending you something genuinely useful once a quarter is a better way to still be the person you think of — and it's honest about being marketing, which is why their name and number are on every page.

You should only be receiving these from an agent you've actually done business with. The platform requires it: contacts have to be marked as past clients before anything is sent, and we don't allow bulk sending to purchased or scraped lists. If you got a report from someone you've never worked with, we'd genuinely like to know.

Your information

Short version: it belongs to your agent's brokerage, we process it for them, and nobody sells it.

What we do

  • Store your name, contact details and property address so the report can be produced and sent
  • Record whether you opened the report, which your agent can see
  • Hold it only while your agent's brokerage is a customer

What we don't

  • Sell, rent or share your details with anyone
  • Market anything to you on our own behalf
  • Combine your information with another brokerage's data
  • Pass your details to lenders, insurers or other agents

To stop receiving these

Every email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom — one click, no questions, and it takes effect immediately. It stops reports from that agent only, so if you work with more than one, you'll need to unsubscribe from each.

You can also just reply to the email and ask. It goes to your agent directly.

Questions about your home's number?

Ask your agent, not us. Their name, phone number and email are on every page of your report, and every "questions about this value?" button in it goes straight to them. They know your neighbourhood, they can see what the model couldn't, and they're the person who can actually help.

We build the software. We don't know your property, and we can't tell you anything useful about your home that isn't already in the report.

If your question is about the software itself — how the estimate is calculated, or something that looks broken — write to support@truppraisal.com and a person will answer.