Reasons for a Home Valuation

There are many reasons why you might need to schedule a real estate appraisal, including:

• Selling your home – When selling your home, an appraisal of the property’s value is an important step in coming up with a listing price. We will look at the price of the neighboring properties that have sold within the past few years (usually one or two years) and that are similar to your home in terms of size, features, and condition. Based on these comparable homes, a real estate agent will add or subtract value to your home.

• Buying a home – If you’ve recently made an offer on a new home, your lender will require you to have a professional appraisal done. This ensures the lender that the property is worth the amount of money that is being loaned.

• Refinancing – Similar to buying a home, the lender will require you to have a professional appraisal done when refinancing your home to ensure that the collateral value offered by the property justifies the refinanced loan amount you are asking.

• Applying for a home equity loan – If you are trying to get a home equity loan and it has been several years since the property’s last appraisal, it is a good idea to have the property appraised, especially if property values in your area have increased. Your equity in the home against which you would borrow money is determined primarily by the current value of the property. If the value of your home has decreased, then it is also possible that your equity in the home has decreased in value.