What’s My Home Worth

What’s my home worth in Central Oregon?

Get a real number, not an algorithm’s guess

If you want to know what your home is worth, I’ll tell you, in writing, with the actual comparable sales I used.

I’m Lacie Pech, a licensed Oregon broker with Knipe Realty ERA Powered and a Central Oregon native. Since 2022 I’ve closed with 65+ buyers and sellers and more than $33 million in volume across Bend, Redmond, Sisters, Sunriver, La Pine, Prineville, Tumalo and Madras. On listings I work with Erin Lovelace, born and raised in Bend, as Sold by Erin & Lacie.

It’s free. It takes about 48 hours. There’s no obligation and I won’t chase you.

Request my home value →

Why an online estimate is usually wrong about your house

An automated valuation model, which is what a Zestimate or a Redfin Estimate is, takes public county records and recent sales in a radius around you and runs them through a formula. It’s a genuinely useful starting point, and in a subdivision full of nearly identical homes it can land close.

Central Oregon is mostly not that. Here’s what the formula can’t see.

It can’t see condition

The algorithm knows your house is 1,900 square feet and built in 1996. It does not know whether the roof is original, whether the crawl space is dry, whether the windows are single-pane, or whether the kitchen has been touched since it was built. Two houses on the same street with identical records can be $80,000 apart in real value, and public records show them as twins.

I walk it. My husband is a contractor, so I know what a failing roof, an old furnace, or a dated but structurally fine kitchen actually costs to deal with around here. That’s the number buyers price against.

It can’t see your upgrades

If you didn’t pull a permit, the county doesn’t have a record, and if the county doesn’t have a record, the algorithm doesn’t know it exists.

That covers a lot: the shop you built, the new well pump, the mini splits, the finished bonus room, the fencing and irrigation, the septic drain field you replaced. All of that is real value and none of it shows up in an automated estimate.

It doesn’t know if you’re on well and septic

This one matters enormously here and automated models handle it badly.

A home on city water and sewer and a home on a private well and septic system are different products with different buyer pools and different costs. A buyer looking in La Pine or Tumalo wants to know the well’s flow rate and depth, when the septic was last pumped, whether the drain field is original, and what the permit records say. A buyer in a Bend subdivision never thinks about any of that. The algorithm treats both as “a house.”

It can’t see a view

A Cascade view is worth real money and it is invisible in public records. So is a south-facing lot, a treed lot versus a bare one, backing to open space versus backing to a busy road, and the difference between a usable flat acre and an acre that’s mostly a lava outcrop.

I’ve stood in the backyard. The model hasn’t.

It picks the wrong comps

This is the biggest one. Automated models pull comps by distance, and distance is a terrible proxy for comparability in Central Oregon.

The market in Bend does not price like the market in La Pine, and a model working off a radius will happily blend them. Same problem between Redmond and Tumalo, between Sisters and the rural land outside it, and between Sunriver, where value ties to rental income and amenity access, and anything nearby that isn’t in the resort. When I build your comp set, every comp is in your actual market, at your actual property type, and I’ll show you why I chose each one and why I threw others out.

How I actually build your home value

Step 1: I walk the house

I come see it. About 30 to 45 minutes, inside and out, including the crawl space or basement, the mechanicals, the roof from the ground, the lot, and any outbuildings. If you’d rather start remotely, I can do a preliminary range from photos and a phone call, and we can walk it later.

Step 2: I pull the closed comps

I pull sold properties from the Oregon Datashare MLS, generally within the last three to six months, in your town, at your size, on your kind of lot, and of your property type. Closed sales only for the core of it. What someone is asking is a wish. What someone closed at is a fact that a buyer, a lender and an appraiser all signed off on.

Step 3: I adjust

No two houses are identical, so each comp gets adjusted up or down to make it match yours: square footage, bedroom and bath count, garage and shop space, lot size and usability, age and condition of the major systems, water and sewer versus well and septic, view, and finish level.

This is the part an algorithm approximates and a person does with judgment. It’s also the part I’ll show you line by line, because you should be able to argue with me about it.

Step 4: I check it against the competition

Then I look at what’s currently for sale and what’s pending. Your buyer isn’t comparing you to a house that sold in March, they’re comparing you to the three houses they can walk through this Saturday. Pending sales tell us where the market is heading right now, which closed comps always lag.

Step 5: You get it in writing

You get a written comparative market analysis with a value range, the comps, the adjustments, current competition, and my read on timing. Usually within about 48 hours of walking the house.

If you’re thinking about selling, I’ll add a net sheet estimating what you’d actually pocket after costs at a few different sale prices. There’s more on the full selling process if you want to read ahead.

Request your free home valuation

Tell me the property address and I’ll come back within one business day, usually the same day. Helpful if you have it handy:

• The property address and roughly how many beds, baths and square feet
• Whether you’re on city water and sewer or on well and septic
• Anything you’ve updated that county records wouldn’t show: roof, HVAC, kitchen, shop, well pump, septic, fencing, anything
• Roughly when you’re thinking about selling, and “just curious” is a completely acceptable answer

Your information stays with me. I don’t sell it, share it, or hand it to a lead company.

What you get back

• A written value range, not a single number, because value is a range until a buyer picks a point in it
• The actual closed comps I used, with addresses, sale prices and dates
• The adjustments, so you can see how I got from their house to yours
• What’s for sale and pending right now in your area and price band
• My honest read on timing, including if I think you’d do better waiting
• If you want it, a seller net sheet estimating your proceeds at three different sale prices

Home values by town: Bend, Redmond, Sisters, Sunriver, La Pine, Prineville, Tumalo and Madras

Values in Central Oregon are extremely local, and a regional average is close to useless for your specific house.

Bend carries the most sales volume and the most out-of-state relocation demand, and values swing significantly by neighborhood and by proximity to services and trails. Redmond generally offers more square footage and lot per dollar and moves on practicality. Sisters has a smaller buyer pool including second-home buyers, which means longer marketing times and comp sets that sometimes have to stretch back further than six months. Sunriver values tie to short-term rental performance and amenity access, so income history is part of the valuation in a way it isn’t anywhere else on this list. La Pine has a lot of manufactured and older site-built homes on well and septic, and condition of the roof, the septic system and the well can move value more than finishes do. Tumalo is acreage, where lot usability, water rights and land-use designation drive the number. Prineville and Madras are the value end, more land per dollar, and comp sets there are thinner, which makes local judgment matter more.

Tell me the address and I’ll tell you which of these your house is actually competing in.

Not selling yet? That’s fine.

Most people who ask what their house is worth are not listing next month. They’re refinancing, or thinking about a remodel, or figuring out whether the move to a bigger place actually pencils, or just curious after seeing a neighbor’s sold sign.

All of those are good reasons to have a real number instead of a guess, and none of them obligate you to anything. I’ll send you the CMA, answer your questions, and then leave you alone unless you tell me otherwise.

No pressure, just real info. If a year from now you want to talk, I’ve got you.

Home valuation FAQs

Is this home valuation really free?

Yes, the home valuation is completely free and there’s no obligation to list your home with me. Agents provide comparative market analyses at no cost because it’s how we meet future clients, and roughly half the people I do them for aren’t selling anytime soon. You get the written CMA regardless of what you decide. If you’d rather I not follow up afterward, tell me and I won’t.

How accurate is a Zestimate?

A Zestimate is a useful starting point but it’s an estimate generated from public records and nearby sales, and Zillow publishes its own median error rate, which is meaningfully higher for off-market homes than for homes actively listed. The gap comes from what the model can’t observe: interior condition, unpermitted upgrades, whether you’re on a well and septic system, views, lot usability, and which comps genuinely belong in your set. In Central Oregon that last one causes the most damage, because an automated model pulls comps by distance and the markets in Bend, Redmond, Tumalo and La Pine don’t price alike even when they’re close together on a map. Use the Zestimate as a rough anchor, then get a real CMA before you make a decision based on the number.

How long does a home valuation take?

I’ll respond within one business day and get you a written CMA within about 48 hours of seeing the property. Walking the house takes 30 to 45 minutes, and most of the remaining time goes into pulling comps and making adjustments rather than into formatting a report. If you need a preliminary range faster than that, I can give you one over the phone from photos and a description, with the understanding that it’s a wider range because I haven’t seen the condition.

Do you have to come inside my house?

No, but the number is significantly more accurate if I do. Condition is the single largest variable that public records can’t capture, and it’s also the variable that moves value the most between two homes with identical specs. If you’d rather not have someone in the house yet, send me photos and a description of what’s been updated and I’ll give you a preliminary range, then we can tighten it later. Plenty of people start that way.

What’s the difference between a CMA and an appraisal?

A CMA is a broker’s opinion of market value used to help you set a price, and an appraisal is a licensed appraiser’s formal valuation used by a lender to decide how much to lend. Both look at comparable sales, but the appraisal follows a regulated format, is paid for by the buyer as part of the loan, and is the number the lender actually acts on. A CMA is free, faster, and built for decision-making rather than lending. They usually land close together, and when they don’t, that gap is exactly what we plan around when we price your home.

Will you pressure me to list?

No. I’ll send you the CMA, answer whatever you want to ask, and then it’s your call. Pressuring people into listing before they’re ready produces bad outcomes for everyone, including expired listings that make the house harder to sell later. If you tell me you’re a year out, I’ll check in when you ask me to and not before.

How is my home valued if I’m on a well and septic?

Homes on a private well and septic system are valued against other well-and-septic homes, never against city-serviced homes, because the buyer pool, the lending requirements and the ongoing costs are all different. What I look at specifically: the well’s depth and flow rate, water quality test results, the age and permit history of the septic system, drain field condition, and whether the county has an as-built on file. This comes up constantly in La Pine, Tumalo, and rural Redmond and Prineville, and it’s one of the biggest reasons automated estimates miss badly out there. Deschutes County Environmental Health keeps septic permit records, and I’ll help you pull them.

Does a home valuation cost me anything if I decide not to sell?

Nothing at all. There’s no fee, no contract, and nothing to cancel. You’re not signing a listing agreement to get a CMA, and asking what your house is worth doesn’t commit you to anything. If you decide to stay put, remodel, or wait two years, that’s a completely normal outcome and I’d rather you make that call with a real number in front of you.

Let’s find out

Call or text (541) 604-9630, or email realtywithlacie@gmail.com. If you’d rather read first, here’s what Erin and I do to sell your house, buying your next place, and what my clients actually said.