Whether you’re going to buy or sell a house or decide to refinance your mortgage, a home appraisal is an important part of the process that has a significant impact. Thus, it’s always in your best interest to get the highest appraisal value possible to ask for a better price for your home or get a new loan that meets your refinancing goals at a lower interest rate. Let’s take a closer look at how to increase home value for appraisal without spending too much on home improvements.
What Is a Home Appraisal?
A home appraisal is a process of determining your home’s market value based on many factors. Typically, a real estate appraiser looks at your home’s general appearance and conditions, square footage, number of bedrooms, location, size of land, surrounding neighborhood, and more.
Although the appraisal process is based on specific and clear criteria, a real estate appraiser is always a person. It means that there is an opportunity to impact their decision by evoking the right emotions and opinions of your home. Since it’s important to get a high appraised value, you need to provide good curb appeal before you set the appraisal date. And sometimes you may need extra money for it.
Even if it requires some additional financing, you should take it seriously and don’t neglect preparation for greater appraisal results. Make a DIY home renovation project or consider taking out a home improvement loan. Even if you experience some credit difficulties, you can always turn to bad credit home repair loans from online lenders in your area in order to bring your house to good curb appeal. Additional financial investments may seem waste and unwanted but they can bring you the result you expect.
Although real estate appraisers are professionals who are trained to pay no attention to temporary factors, such as mess in a house, it can still affect appraisal results. As practice shows, the process starts when an appraiser enters your house, so the first impression also plays a role. Trust us, and all your efforts will pay off in the long run.
How to Get a Higher Appraisal – 7 Pro Tips for Home Appraisals
If you want to sell your house profitably or refinance your mortgage without a hassle, the home appraisal is the process you have to go through. But it can still be stressless if you approach it responsibly. Here are some home appraisal tips to consider before scheduling a property appraiser.
Make Home Improvements
Making your home look better can increase your chance of getting a high appraisal value. However, you don’t even need to spend much as it is rarely possible to get a dollar-to-dollar return of investment. Just try to make some minor repairs you’ve postponed, refresh the paint, and pay attention to the functional elements of your house, for example, in the kitchen or bathroom. You can be inspired by a home remodeling magazine or seek help from people who have already gone through the home appraisal process. Also, making your house energy efficient can help you increase the value of your home.
But keep in mind that some home improvements may require permits. Make sure you have all the receipts and confirmations of meeting the municipality’s specific requirements.
Make Your Home Clutter-Free
This tip can also help you avoid getting a low appraisal value. Maybe it’s not the most important one, but an integrated approach often shows amazing results, so do not neglect it. Shortly before it is time for an appraiser’s visit, clean your property thoroughly to present it in the best possible light.
Sometimes a messy house tells more about itself than you would like to reveal. In some cases, appraisers determine there is a signal of a lack of space or storage areas. Thus, try to put out of sign all visual noise and leave only the items that add aesthetics to the house.
Call Your Local Appraiser
Sometimes it’s much better to deal with an appraiser who has an understanding of the local real estate market. The appraiser who knows the specifics of the area, is familiar with the situation on the real estate market in your city, and has appraisal experience in your neighborhood will always be more objective and accurate in gauging your home’s value. This means that your chances of getting a high appraised value will be higher.
Prepare the List of Comparable Properties
This tip can help you if your appraiser has no local experience. The first step is to search for comparable sales in your neighborhood and pick up a couple of ones at a good price to put them on the list. As the selling price of comparable properties in your area is one of the major factors in evaluating your home’s cost, providing an appraiser with such a list can serve you well.
Highlight the Strength and Advantages of Your Neighborhood
Your neighborhood’s conditions also play a role in your house’s appraisal value. Let your appraiser know about all the characteristics that can be important for potential buyers and sellers. Mention the transport connection to the city, well-developed infrastructure, or any other amenities that are near you.
Learn More About Real Estate Market Conditions in Your Area
A misunderstanding of how the real estate market works leads to homeowners’ inflated expectations. Sometimes it may seem your home is a dream that came true, and it deserves a higher cost. In fact, the value of a home mostly depends on how many buyers want to purchase property in your area. Thus, you need to understand what your potential buyers are looking for to meet their expectations. If there are some similar homes in your area that are recently sold, contact previous homeowners and ask about the sale price and other selling details that can help you navigate. But you should keep in mind that there are things you can’t affect. Although you can use some tips to increase your home appraisal value, there are also factors that are not under your control.
Be Nice and Unobtrusive
Last but not least, even if you speak about your house’s strengths, try to avoid overly emotional statements or excessive praise. You need to be calm, confident, positive, and diplomatic. Otherwise, all your efforts may go down the drain. Of course, your communication skills don’t determine your home value. However, they can also affect the overall impression. Just be nice, mention all the positives calmly, and let an appraiser do their job without being pushy.
What Should You Do to Dispute a Low Appraisal?
If your house appraises for less than you’ve expected and you have strong enough reasons to believe the appraisal was biased, you can get a second opinion and hire another appraiser. But keep in mind that a lender or real estate agent may accept only an appraisal report of certain home appraisers they trust. There is also an option to start the appeal process, but it may take you much time and money to go through it.
Conclusion
A home appraisal is a process of determining how much your house costs in the local real estate market. This value can play a crucial role if you’re going to sell a house or consider mortgage refinancing. If your house appraisal value is high, you can get a higher sale price for your property or count on better mortgage refinancing conditions. Therefore, sometimes it’s important to make proper preparations before inviting a home appraiser. And you may want to know how to increase home value for appraisal.
At this point you can use some tips for home appraisals. First, pay attention to a general condition, curb appeal, and things and elements that need improvements. Also, try to evaluate your house’s approximate cost by doing a small research and making a list of comparable properties that have been sold recently. If you deal with an appraiser who doesn’t know the local market, try to highlight your neighborhood and pay attention to the core advantages it offers.