Appraisers

+ What Are the Most Accurate Home Value Websites?

You’re not going to like the answer. Go to any home value site – the same ones you use to poke around what your neighbor must have paid for their home or to scout out that little remodel near the entrance to the neighborhood. There are dozens of recognizable names which will pop up anytime you look for a house appraisal online or search “home appraisal near me” or anything similar. Visit several of them and you’ll notice on every one – probably right at the very top of the page – a disclaimer to the effect of “the values listed on our site are estimates based on X, Y and Z… hopefully they’re pretty close to the actual house appraisal value in most cases.”

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with many of these sites. They’re interesting and well-organized and seem to have pictures of every home, apartment, or residential area imaginable. They’re certainly good at popping up chat boxes and begging you to click to connect to lenders or brokers or even more estimates of this or that house appraisal online. At the same time, that’s their greatest weakness. Estimates aren’t appraisals, and estimating an appraised value is something of an oxymoron – like guessing verified statistics or looking for reliable news on Facebook.

You get fun estimates from home value websites. You get accurate home values from professional appraisers. Both deserve their place in the real estate milieu and each play their role in the home selling or home buying process. But let’s not confuse fun websites with the expert opinion of a certified real estate appraiser who has actually explored the property and applied their knowledge and skills to create an accurate appraisal. Any website or app claiming to provide accurate home values should be able to back that up with the involvement of certified appraisal companies and the hands-on involvement of a certified real estate appraiser with each property featured.

+ Why Wait For Someone Else’s Appraisers?

At some point in the process, someone’s going to accurately appraise my home. Why be surprised on someone else’s timeline? We’re talking about too much money and too many potentially missed opportunities to simply wait and see, and this is certainly too important to rely on even the most accurate home value websites. They say knowledge is power, and having appraisal value of home options in your area gives you power. You’re not looking to take advantage of anyone. There’s nothing manipulative about accuracy. You’re simply refusing to operate from a position of weakness by relying on others in the process for the most important facts and figures. You’ve also heard that time is money, and if home appraisal can be referenced as quickly and easily as checking social media for political humor or texting your partner with something you just remembered you need from the store, that would certainly save plenty of both.

Searching for “home appraisal near me”? There’s nowhere closer than the phone, tablet, laptop, or other connected device you’re using right now. Worried about finding the easiest appraisal services to work with throughout the home selling or home purchasing process? There aren’t many easier than the ones you control yourself by setting your own parameters and determining how much or how little you want to know and in what format you’d like the information to be shared.

Buying or selling a home, or any property, may not always be easy, but it doesn’t have to be as difficult as it’s often been made out to be. It certainly doesn’t have to be as confusing, and you don’t have to feel like the least-informed person in the process. Whether you’re looking to buy, sell, rent, renovate, or simply need a home appraisal for refinance, why not take advantage of the intuitive, easy-to-use tools available? Why settle for best guesses and way too many links and pop-ups? Most of all, why estimate…when you could accūRATE? Wouldn’t that be nice?

+ What’s Wrong With My Real Estate Agent’s House Appraisal?

There’s nothing “wrong” with the estimates your agent gives you. But they’re just that – estimates. Let’s look at the difference between a real estate agent, a broker, and a certified real estate appraiser.

There are several terms we sometimes use interchangeably – and incorrectly – when talking about real estate transactions. The most common is “realtor.” Any certified real estate agent, appraiser, broker, or other professional in any part of the industry is a “realtor.” The term doesn’t tell us what they do so much as the general field in which they work.

A “real estate agent,” on the other hand, has a specific role. These are the folks you call if you want to buy or sell a home or other property. They must be licensed according to the specific requirements of the state in which they operate, and they’re expected to keep up with the terminology and trends of the profession. As in any field, there’s a wide range of commitment and capability. For our purposes, let’s assume you have a fully qualified and competent agent. What does he or she do to be successful?

• What Does A Real Estate Agent Do?

A successful real estate agent has to do more than navigate the paperwork of buying or selling property. Their professional knowledge must be combined with sophisticated people skills to truly hear what clients want, need, think, and feel. Buying or selling a home is not only a huge financial transaction, it’s intensely personal and emotional for many people. A good real estate agent knows how many bedrooms a property has and when it was built and whether the utilities are gas or electric, but they also know how to pay attention to tone, body language, comments, and questions. They’re able to market themselves constantly without coming across as someone who markets themselves constantly. The best agents make everyone feel like their number one priority and manage to be likeable without compromising their professional boundaries.

A successful real estate agent keeps up with local and national activity related to their field – sales, purchases, new builds, where businesses are going in and where they’re moving out, local school districts, and of course legal changes. They have to know the city as a whole as well as specific neighborhoods in order to serve their clients effectively.

A good agent is able to keep up with endless paperwork, government rules and regulations, and agencies at every level – state, county, city, etc. They learn to become effective marketers in both traditional and 21st century methods – from yard signs to social media. They find creative ways to balance their personal and professional lives. Successful real estate agents rarely work traditional hours and are expected to respond to client phone or emails promptly. If they don’t find “down time,” however, they’re in the same danger of burning out as the rest of us.

Finally, a good agent has to understand the dozens of factors connected to buying and selling. They need enough working knowledge of home repair or renovation to offer realistic insights on used properties. They have to understand the basics of plumbing, wiring, foundations, shingles, paint, flooring, and a dozen other skill sets in order to speak knowledgeably about them with clients. They should be prepared to offer advice on staging, photography, landscaping, cleaning, moving companies, and anything else related to buying or selling without infringing on the client’s rights or responsibilities. Ideally they even have some business cards and recommendations ready if asked.

And yes, a good real estate agent should provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) in order to estimate what a home might be worth. These show the average sale prices of homes in your area and the features of each property sold, bought, or languishing on the market. It’s an impressive array of information and absolutely essential for determining a general starting point for pricing your home or making your offer. It’s also an estimate – not an accūRATE. The difference can be significant.

• Two More Terms: “Broker” and “Appraiser”

There are two other professions under the general category of “realtor” you should know before shopping for a home, hiring an agent, or pursuing a house appraisal online.

A broker is essentially a real estate agent who’s moved up in the world. They have all the same qualifications plus additional training and can do anything an agent does. Typically, a broker owns a brokerage – that’s the fancy office space you go to when your realtor needs you to sign a few more forms or you drop by with questions. They offer working space and support for real estate agents and in exchange take their cut of each sale.

Appraisers, on the other hand, aren’t concerned with the buying and selling as such. They’re not paid to persuade you of anything or to pay attention to your wants or needs. Appraisers are specifically trained to accurately determine the precise value of a property. Not homes kinda like it. Not properties that sold six months ago in a neighborhood comparable to this one. This home, here, right now.

Appraisers begin with many of the same factors that go into a CMA. In terms of determining a home’s value, professional appraisers are expected to keep up with the same local factors and changing conditions as the best real estate agents. They are not interested, however, in promotions, networking, social media, personal attention, or the othe people-centered skills agents must concern themselves with to survive. Their focus is much more specific. With appraisers, the CMA is a starting point – not the final product.

They do an in person visual inspection and factor in specific amenities. How are the roads? Do the trees provide excellent shade or will they clog the gutters with leaves every time it storms – or both? How much value does the reading nook add? How much does that water spot take away? Appraisers aren’t interested in whether you’ve made the bed or staged the kitchen, but they will note the precise condition of each built-in appliance, the flooring, the plumbing and wiring, even those weird parts of the basement where you’re afraid to store anything. They analyze the home in detail to determine a precise value for the property.

Lenders usually have preferred certified real estate appraisers they call in before approving home loans. They don’t want to loan more than a property is actually worth. (It’s the same for home equity loans or when requesting a home appraisal for refinance.) Appraisers provide not only produce the final total, but documentation for each element of their computation. There’s simply no comparison for the amount of information they provide.