The GroundWork Report

A market data report — not an appraisal, and not an opinion of value.

Every credible conclusion about a home starts in the same place: the public record, the closed sales around it, and the market they sold into. The GroundWork Report is exactly that groundwork, done rigorously and explained in plain English — the homework an appraisal is built on, before any judgment is applied. It is built from the same data sources my appraisals use. What it deliberately does not contain is a value conclusion: it shows you the evidence and teaches you how to read it, so you can see for yourself where your home sits. It is also far more extensive than the comparative market analysis (CMA) a real estate agent prepares — every qualifying sale rather than a curated few, with the screening disclosed, the public record included, and an honest read of how strong the data actually is.

What's inside — section by section

1. Results at a Glance. A one-page summary table up front: how many comparable sales qualified, the raw price range they point to, the median price per square foot of the closest matches, what a home of your exact square footage computes to at that median, the median sale price, and the data-strength rating — each line pointing to the section where it's explained.

2. Your property's public record. Everything the county carries on your parcel, laid out and translated: living area, lot size, year built, bedrooms and baths, stories, garage, construction and style, total rooms, the assessor's quality grade, census tract, flood zone status, the full assessment (land, improvements, total, and your tax bill with special assessments), and the recorded sale and transfer history. Includes a plain-English explanation of why your assessed value is not your home's market worth — and why under Prop 13 the gap grows every year you own.

3. Market conditions — twelve months, explained. Four trend charts (median list price, list price per square foot, sale price, and sale price per square foot, month by month), followed by "The Market in Numbers": how many homes are for sale and how fast they're selling, days on market, what buyers paid as a share of asking price, sales counts quarter over quarter and year over year, which way prices were heading — and a table placing your home among everything that sold in the area over the year, by size, age, lot and style. Every measure is a now-versus-then comparison in plain language.

4. The comparable sales — the full set, nothing cherry-picked. Every closed sale from the last twelve months that passed a screen against your home's own characteristics: site area within ±50%, living area within ±20%, and age within 15 years. The qualifying sales appear in a full table — price, price per square foot, lot, living area, year built, beds/baths, days on market, and straight-line distance and direction from your home — ranked into closest matches, supporting sales, and outer-edge sales that qualified but priced or marketed atypically. Each of the closest matches is then individually explained: why it matters, what it shows, and what question it raises. Homes that were listed for sale as of the report date are shown too, in their own table, clearly separated from the sales.

5. The numbers — and how to place your own home in them. The raw, unadjusted price range the sales produce for a home of your square footage, the core (middle 50%) of that range, the median sale price of the closest matches, and the median price per square foot — applied to your home's own living area, with the arithmetic shown, so nothing is a black box. These are the figures a careful reader uses to weigh the evidence and form their own informed opinion of where their home sits. Then a guided exercise: how to look up the closest matches' listing photos on Redfin or Zillow and honestly place your own home's condition and updating inside — or outside — the range. The report is explicit that these figures are data arithmetic, not a value conclusion, and explains why an appraisal would be expected to land inside a much narrower band.

6. Data strength & complexity. The honest read most reports skip: does the sales data actually bracket your home — are there enough sales both larger and smaller, older and newer, on bigger and smaller lots — or does your property have a characteristic the market rarely produces? You get the counts on each side for each characteristic, and a bottom-line rating: routine, moderately complex, or complex. If your home would be a complex appraisal assignment, you find that out here for $99 — not after paying full price.

The report closes with its assumptions and limiting conditions stated in full on page one, and every page is footed with a reminder that it is not an appraisal. Retrospective dates are fully supported — for a date of death, divorce, or Prop 19 matter, the analysis anchors to your valuation date, uses only sales that had closed by that date, and banners the date on the cover. Delivered as a PDF by email, typically within 1–2 business days of payment.

The $99 credit

If the report convinces you a full appraisal is what you need, the entire $99 is credited: a Desktop Appraisal ($449) becomes $350, and a Standard Appraisal ($699) becomes $600. Those are the starting fees for typical properties — complex, remote, or high-liability properties can carry higher appraisal fees, sometimes substantially higher, and your exact fee is always quoted before you commit. The $99 credits in full against whatever that quoted fee is. The credit does not apply to the $299 Basic Desktop, and I do not prepare mortgage appraisals — if a lender will order the appraisal, the $99 cannot be credited toward it (the report can still show you what that appraiser will be looking at).

The GroundWork Report is offered for single-family homes and condominiums only. It is not available for 2–4 unit or multi-family properties, vacant land, manufactured homes, or commercial property. If your property is one of those, contact me and I'll point you to the right service.

This is not an appraisal. No opinion of value is developed or expressed, no one inspects your property, and no adjustments are made to the sales. It is a rigorous, honest presentation of public record and market data — the groundwork an appraisal is built on, at a fraction of the price.

Order Your GroundWork Report

Fill in the property and your contact details, then continue to Square's secure payment page. Your report is prepared as soon as the $99 payment lands. Single-family homes and condominiums only — for any other property type, contact me instead of ordering.

Name * Email * Phone Property Street Address *

City *

Zip Code

What is this for? Valuation date (optional — for date-of-death, divorce, or Prop 19, the report anchors to this past date) Anything we should know about the property?

You'll be taken to Square's secure checkout to pay the $99. A confirmation with your order details arrives by email.

Common questions

Is this an appraisal? No. An appraisal is a licensed appraiser's supported opinion of value, developed by inspecting, verifying and adjusting. The GroundWork Report deliberately does none of that — it presents the unadjusted data and shows you how to read it. It cannot be used for lending, court, tax filings or any purpose that requires an appraisal.

Why would I buy it? Because it answers the questions that come before an appraisal: what have homes like mine actually sold for, is my home easy or hard to value, and is a $449–$699 appraisal worth it for my situation. And if the answer is yes, the $99 rolls into it.

How is this different from a Zillow estimate? They are opposites. A Zestimate hands you a number with no support — you cannot see the sales behind it, the screens they passed, or how thin the data was. The GroundWork Report hands you the support with no number invented from it: the same starting evidence an appraiser assembles before developing an appraisal — every qualifying sale, the screens each one passed, and twelve months of market conditions. It reports the median sale price and median price per square foot of the qualifying sales, shows that arithmetic applied to your home's own square footage, and tells you honestly how strong or thin the data is — the information a careful reader needs to weigh the evidence and develop their own informed opinion of value. The report itself still expresses none; that judgment is yours, or a full appraisal's.

Is this the same as a realtor's CMA? No — it is considerably more extensive than a typical comparative market analysis. A CMA is usually a handful of agent-selected sales, often chosen to support a listing price, with no disclosure of what was left out or why. The GroundWork Report starts from twelve months of MLS closings and shows every sale that passes the screens — nothing curated away — each disclosed with the tests it passed. On top of that it adds the county public record for your parcel, four market trend charts with quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year measures, a table placing your home among everything that sold in the area by size, age, lot and style, bracketing counts on each of your home's characteristics, and a data-strength and complexity rating. And unlike a CMA, it tells you plainly when the data is thin instead of papering over it.

What if there aren't enough comparable sales? Then the report says so, plainly — that finding is part of what you're paying for. If fewer than three sales qualify, we refund the fee or apply it to a full appraisal instead of delivering a hollow report.