Firstly, I want to explain what an appraisal is. An appraisal is an opinion of value. We have been appraising since 2007 and there are some differences between what I call sellable features and appraisal features. Many people feel that some things that they do will add value when it doesn’t add much of anything. The biggest thing that appraisers look at is what’s called GLA which means gross living area that is heated square feet. Some people sometimes will ask what if I add a bedroom and a bathroom? It really won’t make a huge difference to an appraiser if you add a bedroom and a bathroom inside the same existing square footage footprint. It would definitely matter if you increased the square footage of the GLA before doing so. However, if you were to keep the same square footage footprint and you are going to add a bedroom or bathroom, it will most likely increase the sellable factor, but it won’t necessarily increase the value from an appraisal standpoint that much. Another scenario that people tend to believe adds value and it does not from an appraisal standpoint that much at all is the California Closet. For those who are unaware of what a California Closet is, it is basically nothing more than a very fancy closet with maybe hardwood floors in it. I’ve never seen an appraisal where an appraiser would make an adjustment of value for a property having a California closet and another property not having a California Closet. Even though this is the case, it is very likely in my opinion this will be a good sellable feature depending on the market. So, in other words if you put a house on the market and in the comment section of the real estate sales listing you mention that this property has a California Closet, then you may have someone who would pay more for this property than another. There is also a chance that the buyer may have to come out-of-pocket to pay for that difference. Another sellable feature which doesn’t make a great big deal to an appraiser which may become a sellable feature to a buyer is if the property has hardwood floors versus carpet. There would be no adjustment made by the typical appraiser if a property has hardwood floors or if it has carpet, but a property may sell faster if there’s one feature rather than the other. In other words if a property has more hardwood floors versus carpet, it may sell faster, but an appraiser really could care less because most appraisers appraise from the standpoint of functionality and not cosmetic scenarios. Our main concern for a scenario like this is does the property have floor covering or not, not if the house has a hardwood floor covering or if it has carpet floor covering. The floor to us would be about the same from a value perspective.

Oftentimes people don’t understand that there are basically two sides to an appraisal. The way we look at it is there is an inspection side and a report side. When the real estate appraiser visits the client’s home everyone sees the fun side, the easy side where we come out, walk around the house, take pictures, collect money and disappear. That’s what most people think, however it’s much more to it! We come out and make an assessment of the property, we take pictures, we do a measurement of the exterior perimeter. Sometimes you have to go inside and measure things that we can’t access from the outside. We also make notations of the improvements, meaning the things that we see readily available. Interestingly, people tend to get us confused with home inspectors. We are not home inspectors. Home inspectors basically inspect for functionality to see what things are working or not and or how long are these items in the house supposed to last from this point forward and things of that nature. They check everything from washing machines to microwaves to outlets to foundation to roof condition to checking items in the crawl space, things of that nature. Appraisers on the other hand, if you will, inspect for value, so the inspection that you would think that we are doing is very cursory in nature. This basically means if we happen to stumble upon it or we see it while we’re looking at the house, then we’ll notate it. We’re not going looking for items that are working or not. We assume items are in working condition not unless it is obviously, visible broken. After we collect our data at the subject property, which is for those who don’t know, is the property being appraised, we take photos of properties that we feel are comparable to the subject. It is after this at which point the real work begins. This is where we have to go back to the office and begin to gather extensive amounts of data about the subject and extensive amounts of data about the comparable properties and compile the full appraisal report.

The average full appraisal that we create is between 18 and 25 pages in length! The appraisal described in the appraisal process section is a full appraisal. You can refer to that section to get the idea of what a full appraisal is.

There are other types of appraisals out there that are not as extensive, but still will give you a very good idea of the value of the home. One of these types of appraisals are what you would call a desktop appraisal. This appraisal type will rely on the client to explain the condition of the subject property. The square footage of the home would be determined from the tax records as well as the acreage and garages and etc. This type of appraisal is very short but to the point and it doesn’t take a very long time to produce this type of an appraisal. This type of an appraisal also is not as costly as the typical full appraisal. These types of appraisals are quickly becoming more popular for scenarios like divorce, pre-listing and for sale by owner real estate sales.

All of our appraisals are pay at the door so that means before / no later than when we arrive at the property, payment is due. 

Also upon scheduling of the appraisal appointment please provide contact info for entry (name and number) of the person who will let us into the property / access instructions to the property. Also before the appointment time please secure all pets, to ensure a very efficient and smooth appraisal experience.

Acceptable payment types are cash, zelle, PayPal, credit cards or wire. If the payment type is cash, it will be due to the appraiser at the time of the appraisal appointment. If the payment type is PayPal, credit card or wire, there will be a 5% surcharge to cover processing fees.