9 August 2026
What a valuation opinion is, how it differs from a formal appraisal, and why we provide it free. Includes a warning about inflated prices used to win listings.
Almost every week someone writes to us with the same question: what can I sell my apartment for? Or the other version: what can I rent it for?
The answer is called a valuation opinion. It's a service we offer free, with no obligation and no exclusivity. Here's what it is, what it isn't, and why we don't charge for it.
Estimating a property's value isn't an extra we offer to attract clients. It's one of the core functions of real estate work, and it's formally recognised as such.
Competency standard EC0110.02 from CONOCER — the body within Mexico's Ministry of Education that certifies occupational competencies — expressly includes determining a property's market reference value among the functions it assesses. Our team is certified to that standard.
We mention it because, when someone hands you a figure, it matters who prepared it and by what method. Not just what it cost.
It's a document where we tell you what we believe your property can sell or rent for today, and show you what we base that on.
It isn't a hunch or a number pulled out of the air. It's built by comparing your property with similar ones: the same building where possible, the same area if not; similar square metres, the same number of bedrooms, comparable condition. Then adjustments are applied, because two identical apartments aren't worth the same if one is on the ground floor and the other is on the fifth with a view.
What you receive is a range — not a single number — and the reasoning behind it. A range is more honest: the final price is decided by the market, not by us.
A valuation opinion is not a formal appraisal. They look alike and get confused constantly, but they serve different purposes.
A formal appraisal is produced by a licensed appraiser on the official register. It's a formal document, it has legal standing, and it's what you'll be asked for when a mortgage, a deed, a tax matter, an inheritance or litigation is involved. That one does carry a fee, and it must be done by an appraiser, not by a real estate advisor.
A valuation opinion is a commercial tool. It helps you decide: whether to sell, what price to list at, whether to accept the offer you received, whether renting suits you better than selling. It's no use to the bank or the notary.
Worth keeping the difference in mind: if at any point someone presents a valuation opinion as though it had official standing, it's worth asking for clarification. And if what you need is a formal appraisal, we'll say so and point you in the right direction, even with no transaction involved.
We need little from you:
With that we can start. If you let us see it in person it comes out better, because a property's real condition isn't always visible in photographs.
We use it to prepare your valuation opinion and for nothing else. We don't publish it, we don't share it with third parties, and we don't add it to any campaign. If you decide not to proceed, you can ask us to delete it and we will.
Your details go to the person who will prepare the document, not to an automated system. And if you'd rather not give the exact address up front, we can make a first estimate with the street and the building.
These conditions are set out in our privacy notice. Mexican data protection law grants you rights of access, rectification, cancellation and objection — the so-called ARCO rights — and you can exercise them by writing to us at any time.
We then look at what comparable properties are being asked for and, where we have the data, what actually closed. That difference matters a great deal: the advertised price and the closing price are not the same number, and in Playa del Carmen the gap between them can be considerable.
And we adjust for what actually moves the price in this area: which floor it's on, whether it has a view, the aspect — an apartment that takes the afternoon sun heats up, and that counts — the state of the common areas, the maintenance fee, whether the building has a lift, and what the bylaws say about short-term letting.
We do it because it's how we hope to earn your trust and, in time, the chance to represent you.
If the figure we give you is useful and you decide to sell with us, that's our business. If you decide not to sell, or to sell with someone else, or to do it yourself, the opinion is yours all the same and neither of us owes the other anything.
We'd rather say it plainly: it's a professional service we offer free because it also benefits us. Both things are true at once.
This is the point we most want to explain, because it directly affects the seller.
A property can be given an estimate above what the market is willing to pay. Sometimes that's optimism; sometimes it's a way of securing the listing. Either way, the result is the same.
What happens next is predictable. The property goes to market expensive. Nobody views it. Three months pass without a single offer. Then come the calls to "adjust the price". And it's adjusted, and adjusted again.
The trouble is that by then the property has been listed for months. Anyone seeing it a second or third time assumes something must be wrong with it, that's why it hasn't sold. And it ends up selling below what it would have fetched had it been priced properly from the start.
The cost of an above-market estimate is ultimately borne by the seller, in time and in final price.
So when you request valuation opinions — and you should request more than one — don't automatically pick the highest number. Ask what it's based on. Ask to see the comparables. Anyone who prepared the estimate methodically will show them without hesitation: they're data, not secrets.
Sometimes the figure we give is lower than you hoped. We'd rather have that conversation at the start than six months from now.
A valuation opinion isn't only for sellers. If you're about to make an offer and want to know whether the price being asked makes sense, we'll do one for that too.
It's one of the most useful things an advisor can do and one of the least requested. Plenty of people negotiate a property price with no reference beyond their instinct and what the seller told them.
Message us on WhatsApp at 984 180 8944 with the details above, or send us a message from the contact page. We usually have it ready within a few days.
Free, with no obligation, and without being added to any list.
A valuation opinion is a commercial reference document and does not constitute a formal appraisal, nor does it carry legal, tax or lending standing. For those purposes an appraisal is required, prepared by a licensed appraiser currently registered with the relevant authority. Estimated values are approximate, based on information available at the time of analysis, and subject to market conditions.