You’re ready to move out of your home, and you think you know what it’s worth. You’ve researched the homes in your neighborhood: their tax values, what they’re selling for, and their purchase history. This seems simple enough, right? But, you could be either over- or under-estimating the value of your home. This can add lots of time and expense to your selling experience. In the case which you’re selling your home, it’s best to hire a professional appraiser. This is the toughest and most important part of listing residential real estate, and there are important factors to consider.
Appraisals are never objective.
Your appraiser could, despite their best efforts, still walk into your home with a preconceived idea about it. It may be because it’s not a style home that they favor, or even that they’ve done a lot of research on your home already. Perhaps they’re not from the area you’re selling within. The idea is that an appraiser takes stock of your home, your neighbors, and even new developments in your area. They can help you and your REALTOR© determine what the best value is for your home. Most people still decide to get more than one opinion, though.
Your REALTOR© could do fine (or even better) with their own valuation.
Your REALTOR© should have a very in-depth understanding of your home before helping you establish a price point. In fact, it’s also best to get more than one opinion, and don’t be tempted to just accept the highest price for your home. Make sure you have an equal, or even better, understanding of your home than your REALTOR©.
Most buyers and their lenders will want their own appraisal.
By the time someone starts to move to purchase your home, the original appraisal might be out of date. Most buyers and lenders tend to have their own appraisals done before the purchase process begins. This appraiser will present another opinion of what your home should sell for. In this case, it is best to have an appraisal from your REALTOR© followed by those separate appraisals. In fact, potential buyers will many times try and inject the appraisal fee into the contract for the home.
The real estate market is always changing.
You could have an appraisal done one month, and then the next your home is either worth more or less than the original appraisal amount. It’s important to understand the ebb and flow of the real estate market, and to be prepared for changes in the pricing of your home, particularly during the purchase process.