What is the Realm score?

The Realm Score helps you understand how much of a property’s potential has been realized. Unlike home value, which can be impacted by a number of factors outside a homeowner’s control such as school districts, lot size, and nearby highways, a Realm Score only takes into account the things that you can change. 

Put simply: we compare your home to other homes with similar land sizes.

The lowest Realm Score a home can receive is a 0 and the highest score is a 1,000. Since we aren’t dinging you for things you can’t control, it’s possible for two homes with very different values to have the same Realm Score.  

These two homes have vastly different values due to location, lot size, and school districts. However, they have the same Realm score of 650. Positive contributors to the Realm score include high floor-lot ratio, optimal bed-bath combos for the neighborhood, and presence of a pool. The score could be increased by updating the quality of the home – neither has recently had a renovation.

We start by understanding the current state of your home. We look at hundreds of data points per property across 3 broad categories:

• Size – how many square feet is your home, lot, and each individual room?
• Quality – how recently were various parts of the house renovated?
• Amenities – what additional features have you added to your property (for example: a pool, a new fence, elaborate landscaping)

From there, we analyze what is possible. We look at how many buildable square feet you are allowed to add to your property given local zoning regulations. Within this restriction, we assess all possible combinations of projects that could increase the future value and livability of the property. For example, we’ll consider remodeling the kitchen, adding a 2nd floor addition, building a backyard home (also known as an ADU), and re-landscaping the front yard. We weigh the cost of these projects against how much they will increase the home’s value and liveability.

Finally, we compare the analysis of your home to other nearby homes to determine what is best. The Realm Score is standardized within each local area to ensure that it takes into account the preferences of the local real estate market. 

To recap, there are three steps involved in a Realm Score calculation:

1. What is current—as measured by size, quality, and amenities
2. What is possible—as measured by all possible combinations of allowed projects
3. What is optimal—as measured by comparison to other homes nearby

Something look off with your property’s Realm Score? You can share additional details about your home, including uploading photos of recent renovations or editing your bed-bath count, in your dashboard and we will automatically recalculate your score.

Look up your property’s Realm Score for free.