Home valuation in Huntington, from a builder's walk-through

We are Mark Vogler and Gina DeMaio of The Vogler Team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Laffey International Realty, at 315 Main St in Huntington. We live in the village, so we track what sells here because it is our own neighborhood, not just our market.

Mark's 30 years in construction is the difference on a valuation. We both walk the house, and Mark looks at it the way a builder does: roof, windows, mechanicals, the quality of an addition, what a buyer's inspector will circle. Those details move value, and they are invisible in any automated estimate. Gina looks at it the way a buyer will feel it, room by room, with the design eye she built over 22 years as a hairdresser.

We also tell you the number you need to hear, not the one that wins us a listing. If the market says less than you hoped, we will say so kindly and show you why.

Location within Huntington matters a great deal. Homes within an easy walk of Main Street, New York Avenue and the restaurants tend to be valued differently from homes farther out, and proximity to Huntington Harbor or Heckscher Park adds its own appeal. School district lines matter too, since parts of the Town of Huntington fall in different districts.

Condition matters more in an older housing stock. Two craftsman homes of similar size can land far apart depending on what has been updated and how well. That is why we will not value your house from a desk.

If you are weighing a move rather than just curious, see selling your home in Huntington, or downsizing in Huntington if you are thinking about less house.

Huntington is not a cookie-cutter town, and that makes a quick online estimate less useful here than in a lot of places. The village alone has historical homes, craftsman houses, cottages and bungalows, and many have been expanded in different ways at different times. One house may have a permitted addition and an updated kitchen; the one next door may have the same square footage on paper and a very different story inside. An algorithm sees two similar houses. A buyer, an appraiser and a buyer's attorney do not.

That is why we walk the house before we give you a number. Mark looks at the bones, the systems and any work that has been done, and Gina looks at how the rooms live and how the home will photograph. We compare it only to homes in the same town, the same school district and the same style, of similar size, that sold in the last three to six months. Then we show you our range next to your number and explain every gap between them. If permits or a certificate of occupancy need to be pulled at the building department, we tell you early, so it does not stall a sale later.

A valuation is also useful if you are not selling yet. It shows you which projects add value in Huntington and which ones mostly add cost, so you can plan the next few years with real information.