Home Value | Home Appraisers | Licensed Appraisers | Home Valuation | Property Appraiser

Home Appraisal

A home appraisal is required by mortgage lenders and credit lenders to establish a property's market value. That is the price it would bring if offered in an open and competitive real estate market. Too often though this concept is irrelevant in real home appraisal.

With news stories of botched home appraisals, and home appraisers claims that they feel pressured to inflate or deflate their estimates, you might feel less confident in your local home appraiser's valuation of your home or the one you'd like to buy.  Fortunately, the industry does have real estate appraisal guidelines that diminish the possibility of appraiser error, whether it is a condition in the home that went overlooked or that an appraiser was under financial or business pressure to alter their estimates.  The USPAP guidelines provide some reliability in home valuation practices. Further training at the state level encourages greater objectivity and consistency in evaluations.

Skewing of home appraisal can arise for a number of factors, some of which are not completely hard facts. An expected major job loss event in a city or community may or may not impact on home valuation in that community. The ethnic, national or racial profile of a neighborhood may also cause skewing in home valuation. Although it may be illegal, the reputation of a community may play a role in dollar estimates. Residential properties often consist of a house or dwelling and the land it is on. It takes skill to estimate the exact value of the home itself.

There are other reasons for home appraisal errors too such as a lack of access to relevant property information. Also appraisers are more affected by the past in performing their appraisal whereas the real estate market itself is driven by the future and speculation.  That can make the home appraisal business a controversial one. This is why you would be wise to check the valuation of other nearby properties to the one being appraised. This may force the appraiser to look at the appraisal more deeply, when they may actually have just done a quick estimate or an appraisal based on outdated information.

In some areas of the country, home prices may be far ahead of appraisals. This can certainly affect anyone seeking a mortgage or a line of credit on the sale of their home. The appraisal may be lower by as much as 100,000 dollars than actual current selling prices. Sometimes these appraisals can cause a sale to be lost.

If you feel your appraisal was carried out poorly, or was late in being done, you can contact your local state appraiser board for action on the matter.