Glossary of Terms

AVM

Automated Valuation Model. AVMs are online databases that try to match up similar properties to give an idea of the range of sales prices that have historically been recorded. County assessors were some of the first to use such services because of budgetary and personnel limitations. However, this information is limited to factual data, such as the size of the house, number of rooms and bedrooms, age of the house, and distance surrounding the house. Fast and cheap, but reliant on the (in)accuracies of public data.