Home Appraisal – What Happens During a Home Appraisal?
What does a home appraiser look at? We’re refinancing our home so we needed a new home appraisal. An appraiser checklist may look similar to this
How much does a home appraisal cost? The bank charged us $400. I think most appraisals in Brooklyn are going for $250 – $300, but the bank tacked on a bit more money for the bank.
When we first purchased our home, we weren’t present for the home appraisal because the real estate agent brought the appraiser by so we didn’t know what to expect with this home appraiser. We knew that they took pictures of the home, measured and friends who had one done recently were low-balled on the home’s value. We live in Bay Ridge and the homes here haven’t decreased in price. In fact our home was used as a comparative home for several readers of this blog :) You can find out the comparatives for your home for free (and no registration either) here.
The appraiser came and was at our home for a total of 7 minutes. He measured the length and width of the house with a digital measuring device. He had drawn a rough outline of the rooms already and recorded the measurements on his paper. He took one photo of our living room (pointing toward the sofa not the fireplace), dining room (of the dining room table/China closet), kitchen (granite countertop), top bathrooms (towards the toilet in one of them because our toilet is small), bedrooms (from the door towards the beds) and the laundry room (towards the machines rather than the counter space) He took of the picture of the backyard, garage and front of the house. He measured the length and width of the backyard. And then he was gone.
What the appraiser did not look at: the boiler room, closets, our security system, Jacuzzi tub or any of the homes amenities including the snazzy molding.
The appraiser said it was a beautiful house and he said the backyard was beautiful, liked our awning and asked for the name of the company who put it in. On the way out he said he would have the appraisal paperwork to the bank in two to three days.
And that was it.
What should you do to get a high appraisal? Your home is valued around whatever the homes in your area are valued at. Of course you want to get the best appraisal for your property. Here’s what we did:
- Trimmed our bushes and raked the front and back yard (good curb appeal helps because it is the first thing the appraiser sees)
- Painted the white trim in the house so it was fresh
- Waxed the floors because we have wood floors throughout and they look amazing waxed.
Hugs,
marlene
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