About this video. The person on screen is an avatar generated by artificial intelligence in my likeness. The voice is mine, cloned from recordings of my own voice, and the edit adjusts the sound. The image and the voice may therefore differ from my real appearance and speech. The text is written and validated by me, and I am fully responsible for it. This method lets me publish regularly; it changes nothing about what is said. This video is in French — a full transcript in English is provided below.
Hello. At least four different numbers are floating around about your house, and none of them mean the same thing.
The question, as it’s asked: “why doesn’t the municipal assessment match the value of my house”
Municipal assessment and market value: two numbers, two uses
The number on your tax bill isn’t the value of your house. It answers an entirely different question.
The most widespread confusion starts with the tax bill. It arrives, it carries a number, and many people think it’s the value of their house.
It isn’t.
The municipal assessment is used to distribute taxation among the properties of a municipality. It’s established en masse, at a specific reference date, and it’s filed for an assessment roll that stands for several years. Nobody came into your home to produce it.
Market value is something else. It’s what a buyer is willing to pay today, in today’s market conditions, for your property in particular.
The two numbers can be very different, in either direction, and the gap isn’t the same from one area to another.
What to remember: your tax bill doesn’t answer the question you’re asking. It answers another question, asked by someone else, for another reason.
What online estimators see, and what they don’t
An online estimator doesn’t see your kitchen, your neighbour, or the noise from the arterial road two streets over. Nobody came in.
On an online estimator, you enter your address, you click, and a number appears in a few seconds.
What they see. Your address, the year of construction, the declared floor area, the number of rooms, and the public transactions in the area. That’s real data, and it gives a ballpark.
What they don’t see. The condition of your finishes. The kitchen redone last year. The basement that was never finished. The windows. The lot’s orientation and what you see from the living-room window. The immediate neighbour. The noise from the arterial road two streets over. The fact that your street is a quiet dead end and not a shortcut.
Two properties identical on paper, on the same street, can sell at different prices for those reasons. A model doesn’t know it, because nobody came in.
Use them to get your bearings. Don’t make a decision with one.
Comparables: what counts as one, and what doesn’t
Your neighbour’s asking price is an intention. The price paid at their place is data.
Any serious opinion of value rests on comparables.
A comparable is a property that sold. Not a property for sale. Your neighbour’s asking price is an intention. The price paid at their place is data.
What makes a sale comparable to yours. It’s recent — a market moves, and a sale from two years ago no longer says much. It’s close, in the same area and ideally in the same quadrant. And it resembles your property. Same type of building, living area in the same band, a similar number of bedrooms and bathrooms, a lot of the same order.
Not comparables: a sale between members of the same family. A rushed estate. A repossession. A different type of building on the same street.
And when two comparable sales don’t agree, you don’t average them. You look at what sets them apart, and you adjust.
Why a property’s asking price tells you nothing
An asking price is a request, not a result. A house listed for five months mostly tells you that price isn’t working.
To get their bearings, people naturally look at the houses listed around them.
The problem is simple. An asking price is a request, not a result. It’s what someone hopes to get. It’s not what they got.
A property listed on your street for five months mostly tells you that this price hasn’t worked so far. And the price isn’t always the cause. Windows to replace, a roof to redo, or something you only notice on a visit. Another property, sold in nine days, tells a completely different story. From the outside, the two signs look alike.
What counts are the closed sales. The real price, the date, and the number of days it took.
That data isn’t public in Quebec. Licence holders have access to it through their listing system, under licence. It’s a good part of what they bring to a conversation about value.
It’s also why a serious opinion of value relies on sales, never on listings.
What makes two houses on the same street differ
A double garage doesn’t carry the same weight in Blainville as in Rosemont. Value is looked at area by area.
Two properties that resemble each other on paper can diverge a lot, and here’s why.
The lot first. The area, the shape, the slope, the orientation, the privacy. A corner lot and a row lot don’t compare.
The building next. The year of construction, the living area, the number of bedrooms upstairs rather than in the basement. The presence of a garage and its type, the general condition of the finishes, the apparent age of the windows and the roof.
And the immediate surroundings. A busy street or a dead end. Proximity to a school, a park, an arterial road. What you see from the living-room window.
What counts for a seller: these elements don’t add up like a grocery list. The same element doesn’t carry the same weight at all from one area to another. A double garage doesn’t play the same role in Blainville as in Rosemont.
That’s exactly why value is looked at property by property, and area by area.
When you need a chartered appraiser rather than a broker
An opinion of value is for deciding. An appraisal report is for proving. They’re two different products.
There’s a point where a broker’s opinion isn’t enough, and where you need a chartered appraiser.
The chartered appraiser is a member of a professional order. They produce a formal appraisal report, according to standards of practice, and that report is a document you can file.
One clarification, because it’s often heard backwards. The broker isn’t an amateur alongside. The broker is governed by Quebec’s real estate brokerage self-regulatory organization, and their opinion of value engages their professional liability. They rely mostly on comparable sales, and other methods exist. But to set a listing price, it’s the sold comparables that stick closest to the reality of the market.
When an appraisal report becomes necessary. In a division of family assets or a separation. In an estate, when the value must be established at a specific date. Before a court. For a challenge to your municipal assessment. And sometimes at a lender’s request.
Two different products, for two different uses. An opinion of value is for deciding and for going to market. An appraisal report is for proving.
Who to call, and for what
I don’t do the inspection. My role is to know where to look and who to call.
- Chartered appraiser
Frequently asked questions
Get a value report for your property, and a marketing plan
Get a value report for your property, and a marketing plan — comparables, features, opinion of value
Full transcript of the video
Complete transcript of the video above (translated from French). Published on September 16, 2026.
Hello. At least four different numbers are floating around about your house, and none of them mean the same thing.
My name is Ernso Cléus. I’m a residential and commercial real estate broker at RE/MAX Crystal.
The one on the tax bill. The one a website gives you in thirty seconds. The one on the neighbour’s sign. And the one a professional would hand you in writing.
I won’t give a single number on any property in this video. A value is produced for a specific address, not for an average.
Municipal assessment and market value
The most widespread confusion starts with the tax bill. It arrives, it carries a number, and many people think it’s the value of their house.
It isn’t.
The municipal assessment is used to distribute taxation among the properties of a municipality. It’s established en masse, at a specific reference date, and it’s filed for an assessment roll that stands for several years. Nobody came into your home to produce it.
Market value is something else. It’s what a buyer is willing to pay today, in today’s market conditions, for your property in particular.
The two numbers can be very different, in either direction, and the gap isn’t the same from one area to another.
What to remember: your tax bill doesn’t answer the question you’re asking. It answers another question, asked by someone else, for another reason.
What online estimators see
On an online estimator, you enter your address, you click, and a number appears in a few seconds.
What they see. Your address, the year of construction, the declared floor area, the number of rooms, and the public transactions in the area. That’s real data, and it gives a ballpark.
What they don’t see. The condition of your finishes. The kitchen redone last year. The basement that was never finished. The windows. The lot’s orientation and what you see from the living-room window. The immediate neighbour. The noise from the arterial road two streets over. The fact that your street is a quiet dead end and not a shortcut.
Two properties identical on paper, on the same street, can sell at different prices for those reasons. A model doesn’t know it, because nobody came in.
Use them to get your bearings. Don’t make a decision with one.
Comparables: what counts as one, and what doesn’t
Any serious opinion of value rests on comparables.
A comparable is a property that sold. Not a property for sale. Your neighbour’s asking price is an intention. The price paid at their place is data.
What makes a sale comparable to yours. It’s recent — a market moves, and a sale from two years ago no longer says much. It’s close, in the same area and ideally in the same quadrant. And it resembles your property. Same type of building, living area in the same band, a similar number of bedrooms and bathrooms, a lot of the same order.
Not comparables: a sale between members of the same family. A rushed estate. A repossession. A different type of building on the same street.
And when two comparable sales don’t agree, you don’t average them. You look at what sets them apart, and you adjust.
Why an asking price tells you nothing
To get their bearings, people naturally look at the houses listed around them.
The problem is simple. An asking price is a request, not a result. It’s what someone hopes to get. It’s not what they got.
A property listed on your street for five months mostly tells you that this price hasn’t worked so far. And the price isn’t always the cause. Windows to replace, a roof to redo, or something you only notice on a visit. Another property, sold in nine days, tells a completely different story. From the outside, the two signs look alike.
What counts are the closed sales. The real price, the date, and the number of days it took.
That data isn’t public in Quebec. Licence holders have access to it through their listing system, under licence. It’s a good part of what they bring to a conversation about value.
It’s also why a serious opinion of value relies on sales, never on listings.
What makes two houses on the same street differ
Two properties that resemble each other on paper can diverge a lot, and here’s why.
The lot first. The area, the shape, the slope, the orientation, the privacy. A corner lot and a row lot don’t compare.
The building next. The year of construction, the living area, the number of bedrooms upstairs rather than in the basement. The presence of a garage and its type, the general condition of the finishes, the apparent age of the windows and the roof.
And the immediate surroundings. A busy street or a dead end. Proximity to a school, a park, an arterial road. What you see from the living-room window.
What counts for a seller: these elements don’t add up like a grocery list. The same element doesn’t carry the same weight at all from one area to another. A double garage doesn’t play the same role in Blainville as in Rosemont.
That’s exactly why value is looked at property by property, and area by area.
When you need a chartered appraiser
There’s a point where a broker’s opinion isn’t enough, and where you need a chartered appraiser.
The chartered appraiser is a member of a professional order. They produce a formal appraisal report, according to standards of practice, and that report is a document you can file.
One clarification, because it’s often heard backwards. The broker isn’t an amateur alongside. The broker is governed by Quebec’s real estate brokerage self-regulatory organization, and their opinion of value engages their professional liability. They rely mostly on comparable sales, and other methods exist. But to set a listing price, it’s the sold comparables that stick closest to the reality of the market.
When an appraisal report becomes necessary. In a division of family assets or a separation. In an estate, when the value must be established at a specific date. Before a court. For a challenge to your municipal assessment. And sometimes at a lender’s request.
Two different products, for two different uses. An opinion of value is for deciding and for going to market. An appraisal report is for proving.
Three numbers, three uses, and only one answers the question you’re asking.
That one, I produce: a value report, with the comparable sales in your area, the features that count, and what I draw from them. And I also offer a marketing plan for your property. Request it in the links below the video.
If you’re already bound by a brokerage contract with another broker, this invitation isn’t for you.
And when you need a value that stands up formally, it’s a chartered appraiser who produces the document: two different licences, two different documents.
Ernso Cléus, residential and commercial real estate broker, RE/MAX Crystal. Your broker who knows buildings.
Read also: selling your house with a broker · all the advice for sellers · get in touch
Ernso Cléus, residential and commercial real estate broker — RE/MAX Crystal. Your broker who knows buildings.
