The decision to move involves a home's value, but also its stairs, rooms, location and demands on the people living there. The Symbio Index was developed to organize that second part of the conversation.
What the Symbio Index considers
The method described here compares the home with the household's current needs and plans. Its results are reviewed in a conversation about staying, renovating or moving.
Two different questions
A valuation addresses the home's financial worth. The Symbio Index, as described here, looks at how the home supports the people living in it. A property's value alone does not establish whether its layout or location still meets their needs.
What the score is
Three readings come out of the process. The Symbio Score reads how well the home and the life fit together right now. Unleveraged Potential reads what the house could still give you that it is not giving you. Pull reads how strongly something is drawing you somewhere else.
Together they resolve to one of three words, stay, renovate or move, and the reasons come back in your own language, because the answers you gave are what the score was built from.
The method is not tied to an age or a life stage. It measures fit, so it works whether the mismatch is too little space or too much, a growing family or a house that has outlasted the reason it was bought.
Why data helps an emotional decision
A move involves attachment to a home as well as practical questions. Reviewing the space, stairs, location and future plans separately can help a household discuss what is working and what needs to change.
The review considers the source of a mismatch, such as stairs that are difficult to use or a wish to be nearer grandchildren. Those observations can inform the household's decision without deciding it for them.
A person between you and every number
Under the process described here, I review the results before discussing them with a household. The conversation provides room to examine the reasons behind a result and correct information that does not reflect how the home is used.
The Symbio Index is invitation-only while it is in live use. If the question in this note is the one you have been asking, the invitation is the place to start, and the previous note explains the three answers it comes back with.
This note describes the Symbio Index as it operates on hodge.realtor. It is a consultation tool, not an appraisal, and its scores are not estimates of value.