The Basics of Real Estate Appraisal

By:Sandra Stammberger

When buying a home, it is important that you order an appraisal. This is because real estate appraisers offer reports about the close estimate of a property’s true market value.

When buying a mortgage, a lender will require an estimate of the property’s true market vale. This is where lenders base the amount of money to lend you.

Appraisers
Appraisers are licensed people that will estimate the true market value of the property.
• The lenders might have an appraiser on its staff or contract an independent appraiser. Sometimes, you will be allowed to choose your own appraiser.

It is important that you know what you will see on an appraisal report. An appraisal report should include:

• An evaluation of the overall real estate market in your area.
• It should include details about the property being appraised with evaluation of at least three similar properties.
• An appraiser should include in the report about the issues considered harmful to the property’s value, like; little access to the property, and maintenance problems.
• What type of zoning your property is in?
• An estimate of the average sales time for the property.

When a residential property is appraised, there are two common methods to do this.

One is the sales comparison approach.

In this method, the appraiser will estimate the market value of the property by comparing it to similar properties sold in the same area.

There are usually no properties alike. Therefore, the appraiser looks for recently sold properties with the most similar characteristics and adjusts the subject property to get it inline with the comparable property. The appraisal result would show how much market value of the comparable property if it has the same components of the subject property.

Another method is the cost approach

This method is often used in new properties. This enables the appraiser to know how much money is used to build the house. Since the appraiser knows the cost of building the house, he or she can estimate how much it will cost to replace the structure if it were destroyed.

What importance will the appraisal be for you?

Even if you accomplish personal approval for the loan early, loan institutions can deny you the loan if the appraisal is unsatisfactory for them. This is because loan institutions would not want to risk loaning you money with collateral that has low market value.

Loan institutions would not want a property that is difficult to sell if ever your property has been foreclosed. The accessibility to the property can determine if your property can be sold faster.

In addition, the maintenance issues with your property poses a very important factor in the appraisal. If the building foundation is crumbling, the appraisal will be low.

If the appraisals are low, there are steps you can take to increase the market value of the property to meet the standards of loan institutions.

If you really want the mortgage, you can offer to make larger down payment. In this, you should be sure that you could afford to make larger down payment to make the deal work.

Negotiations with the seller and buyer about the price can make the deal work.

You can also ask the lender for another appraisal, by using a new appraiser or asking the original appraiser to take another look at the property.

Remember that real estate appraisal can determine the outcome of your mortgage application. Consider the condition of the property before you apply for a mortgage.

Look for yourself about the accessibility, the condition of the foundation and you can hire independent home appraisers to evaluate the true market value of the property before you apply for a mortgage.

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Article keywords: real estate, real estate appraisal

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

S. Stammberger is the editor of Real
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