When viewing a property and placing an order, you may encounter reference to "Estimated Value". This page explains the formula we use at Lofty to calculate Estimated Value, aka FMV (Fair Market Value) using HouseCanary (HC) data that we receive for each of the properties on our marketplace.

The FMV estimate serves as a general guide on how much a property might actually be worth today if it were to be sold on the local real estate market without a tenant.

Calculation

The estimated price is generated by taking the most recent property sale price (not the fractional token interest, but the actual sale price of the entire property where the deed/title has transferred) and applying the percentage change between subsequent HC price estimates each time a new HC report is available.

You can view the latest HC report for each property in the property documents folder.

Methodology

It is important to note that the FMV we provide is not the same as the estimated value from the HC reports. This is because HC provides really good reports, but they are still estimates.

The true value of a property is whatever it can actually be sold for on the open market. As a result, if the HC at the time a property was closed on our website was $100,000, but the property was actually bought by our users for $105,000, then the true value of the property is not the estimated value of $100,000 but rather the actual transactional value (where the deed exchanged hands) of $105,000.

As a result, it does not make sense to show that the property immediately decreased in value if the the next estimated value from HC was $103,000. It makes more sense to use the percentage change from each subsequent HC estimate relative to the previous report and applying that change to the last estimated value.

Formula