How much is it worth? That’s the question on the lips of every homeowner this time of year, as the summer selling season gets into full swing and buyers scramble to complete their purchase before rates really start to move.

Whether you are serious about buying or selling, merely curious about your home’s value, we all want to know how to come up with a reasonable estimate of value.

The definition of fair market value is that price which a typical buyer might be willing to pay, and which you might be willing to accept, given normal motivation to complete the transaction and given full knowledge of the marketplace, at a given moment in time.

That means a seller who is neither distressed nor pressured to sell. And it means a buyer who wants to buy but does not have to do so, and is only willing to pay a fair price for the property.

The last part of the definition is a recognition that "fair market value" is perhaps a moving target, based on the market conditions as they exist at a specific time. If interest rates change, or competition increases, or if we find out that bricks cause cancer, any of these things might have an impact on the value of your home.

Appraisers use three methods to help them determine an estimate of value. The first two approaches are much less indicative of the behavior of the average buyer than the final one, so that is where we will spend our time. That approach is called the comparable sale method.

The underlying assumption is that if you can find three or more recently sold homes similar in age, size, style, and condition to your home, and if you can determine that they are relatively nearby your home, then you can reliably predict what your home might be worth, allowing for variations from house to house.

This procedure works well in a subdivision of relatively new homes, especially where most of the houses are very similar in construction and age. Unfortunately, it breaks down in neighborhoods where there is a wide diversity of home styles and sizes, and in areas lacking recent sales activity

Here are some sources of data on recent home sales, and my thoughts on the helpfulness of each:

* Free internet websites, such as ajc.com and domania.com offer limited information in exchange for a simple site registration. The data gives you a street address and a selling date and price, and in some cases, the bedroom and bath count plus the county tax assessment. In addition, I have found this source of sales to typically be more than six months old.

While this information is helpful as a starting point, it simply is too scanty to give you more than a general idea of price movement in an area, but it’s a quick and easy way to start your investigation.

* County tax records of sold properties are available on a paid subscription basis, but are expensive and not feasible for homeowners wanting a casual listing of recent sales.

* Multiple listing services provide their agent members access to two data areas. The first is the above mentioned county tax records, which are sorted and easy to use. You can search on almost any parameter, including zip code, street or neighborhood, and by date and sale price, among others. This is public information which has been purchased from the counties.

The second is the listing and sales data gathered by the agents themselves as they list and sell homes through their respective brokerage firms. As you might expect, this data is extremely detailed and accurate, and perhaps more importantly, is current as of yesterday. This information is available only to agents whose brokers are members of the particular listing service involved.

* Finally, licensed appraisers have a variety of sources of information available to them, including everything we have mentioned so far. In addition, they maintain their own records of previous appraisals, giving them insight into the impact of condition on estimated value that few others might have.

It must be noted that appraisers reasonably expect to get paid for their opinions, and it is not wise to pay for an appraisal that you really may not need.

Since it appears that none of the most accurate sources of information is free, what’s the best way to estimate your home’s value? I recommend making friends with your local real estate professional.

Because agents need to keep a mental inventory of homes that are currently for sale, they have often seen the interior of most of the houses that have sold in your area. As a result, they are uniquely qualified to give you an insider’s opinion of what your house might bring on the open market.

Furthermore, if you explain up front that you are not necessarily planning to sell, but simply want to review recent sales activity to stay abreast of values, I think you will usually find an agent willing to share their thoughts without cost or obligation.

The best agents get most of their business by referral, and you are much more likely to refer a friend than a stranger. It’s always smart to have a friend in the real estate business.