There are many good reasons to have your property valued. Whether you are applying for a home equity loan or refinancing your mortgage, having an accurate reading on what the value of your property is will be important in achieving the financial goals that you have set for yourself.
There are some important things to consider when appraising your value, so here are the steps you will want to take to ensure that you get the most accurate reading on your property.
Check zoning
Contacting your local government for city planning will give you the zoning for the property so it can be marked accurately. This can be done before contacting an appraiser, and will save them a lot of time and money so you know exactly what the size of your land is and can be used to compare to other values in the area.
Finding an appraiser
Checking your local directories either through your phone-book or on the internet will be the quickest and easiest way to find an appraiser. You may also ask around in your area to find someone that has done accurate value appraisals in the past. You may also contact the National Association of Real Estate Appraisers and they will be able to point you in the direction of an appraiser in your area that is licensed to do the job correctly the first time.
Open access
The appraiser will need to look into nearly every detail of your property, so it’s important that they have full access to the property and land surrounding it. This will give them the most accurate reading on the square footage of the property and land, which is vital in terms of value. You may actually end up having a larger property than you had first thought when the appraisal process started.
Condition
There are going to be many factors that either raise or lower the value of property. Many of these things may have been overlooked by someone that is new or foreign to real property appraisal, but it is important to know the condition of many things that are happening with the property.
This can be anything from sewage, insulation, water, electricity and anything else that you can think of when it comes to a home. Having all of these in top shape when it comes time to have the property appraised will ensure that the value will go up much higher. Many people are surprised to hear that the value of their property has been lowered due to an electric problem that they were not aware of, so make sure that type of factor is checked before an appraisal.
Location
Location is the most popular term in all of real estate. It is considered by most to be the factor that affects value more than anything else. If houses that are of a similar size in your area have been selling at asking prices and coming off of the market quickly, that is only going to help the value on your property. However, if houses have been sitting on the market for quite some time and, as a result, lowering the final selling price, that is going to put a damper on the value.
Also, consider the crime rate for your area. Obviously, it’s not ideal for anyone to be living in an area with a high crime rate, so the lower it is, the higher your property will be valued and will also increase the likelihood of a sale. A good appraiser will make sure to check into the statistics for you to find out exactly what the crime rate is in your area.
