Category Archives: real estate appraisal

It’s Not Easy Getting Green Homes Appraised

Posted on October 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Green home construction and remodeling is on the rise as a housing market recovery begins to take shape and consumers look to marry their quest for home comfort with energy efficiency and cost savings.

Putting a value on green properties continues to be a challenge because of a lack of comparable sales. However, some progress has been made on that front, say green building proponents.

Contact the appraisers at http://www.scappraisals.com they specialize in green, energy efficient and high value properties.

Last year, single-family green home construction represented 17 percent of the homebuilding market, in effect doubling since 2008, according to a report by McGraw-Hill Construction. Researchers predict that by 2016, green home construction could comprise 29 percent to 38 percent of the market, as builders devote more time to green projects. The share of remodeling projects labeled as green is expected to rise as well.

Who’s creating the trend and who’s following it? It’s tough to say.

Simultaneously, manufacturers are coming out with better products, builders and remodelers are looking to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, and homeowners are seeking healthier living spaces while keeping a lid on rising energy costs.

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Should You Get A Professional Appraisal Before Putting Your Home on the Market?

Posted on June 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

Pricing a listing is one of the hardest— and perhaps most important — tasks in residential real estate.

Sellers can get it wrong in either direction: If the asking price is too low, the sellers might end up leaving money on the table; if it’s too high, they won’t tap into the right target group, will lose a lot of time and may then end up selling for even less.

Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your listing price questions.

Sometimes, the seller and the agent might not agree on a price. And even if they do, the sellers might look for some “objective” method to corroborate their number. That’s why our listing clients frequently ask us if it’s a good idea to get an appraisal before they put the house on the market. But should you?

Well, it depends on your reasons.

Chris Connors is a Bethesda-based independent appraiser whom I met years ago when he was working with a large credit union, and he often gets hired by potential sellers. Usually, the owners come to him because they have talked to several different agents and got very different suggestions for a price from them, he said.

Just a couple of days ago, Connors said he finished an appraisal on a house where the seller had previously interviewed two realty agents. The first one suggested an asking price around $800,000, the second one was closer to $1.1 million.

“The seller was quite angry with me,” Connors said, “when my report supported the first estimate, and I told him the other guy just wanted to get the listing.”

In cases like that, just like in limited-service or for-sale-by-owner situations, a full professional appraisal might be an important reality check. The same might be true for buyers who are not represented by an agent and need to make sure they won’t overpay.

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Home Appraiser Group Takes Issue with Compensation Regulation

Posted on February 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

A trade group of home appraisers is digging into a federal rule it says has driven down the quality of home valuations, negatively affecting appraiser wages along with borrowers trying to get mortgages or refinances.

Contact the appraisers at www.socalappraisalserv.com for your appraisal questions.

The American Guild of Appraisers recently requested key documents from the Federal Reserve on regulations that dictate what is “customary and reasonable” pay for appraisers. The paperwork was requested by the group’s law firm, Garvey Schubert Barer, under the Freedom of Information Act, essentially a federal open-records law.

The trade organization says the compensation rules allow appraiser management companies, who are middlemen, to call the shots on how much appraisers get paid, leading to reduced wages for the same amount of work, or more, even though homeowners are paying the same, or sometimes more, for home appraisals.