Home Appraisal
 

We sold our home and are waiting for the appraisal. Is there anything I can do on my end to help with the price of the appraisal? Thanks

You can make a list of all of the improvements to the home and the year they were completed. When they came for our VA appraisal he asked me about improvements and when and how much they were. We almost missed the $3000 paint job inside and the landscaping.

Ask you REALTOR to pull recent comps and leave them in your house when the appraiser is there. He's not looking at how clean your house is or beautifully decorated - he is looking at square footage, age, condition. It really is a crap shoot; however if the house doesn't look cared for at the curb he will immediately come in with a negative approach.

Its critical your realtor or TV sales agent be proactive in providing good comps and if need be educating the appraiser about this market. Most local appraisers are very familiar with TV so they understand this is a very unique market. We sold our home to someone using VA financing and they had to use a VA "approved" appraiser that came up from the Orlando area. Needless to say, this appraiser initially didn't understand the TV market and how unique it is compared to the real estate market in most of central florida. Our agent saved the day

If the appraiser is any good, they will not use any comps from the realtor since its their name on the report and they are the one that has to justify the comps used. As far as improvments, anything done over the past one to two years is only relevent, its the over all condtion they are looking at.