What Happens During a Home Appraisal?

Buying a home is a long and complicated process, and there are many different hoops that you will find yourself jumping through before you hold the keys to your property in your hands. One of these is a home appraisal.

A home appraisal occurs after you’ve found and placed an offer on your dream home, but before your lender finalizes your mortgage and is prepared to complete the same. It is a crucial element to the home buying process both for the buyers, the sellers, and the lenders. This is because an appraisal is a process by which the value of the property being bought is determined.

The seller of your dream property will be hoping that the appraisal comes in close to the sale price that you’ve agreed upon. Too high and their home will have been worth more than they asked, and they could have lost money. Too low and you may want to renegotiate what you are prepared to pay them. Lenders will view the value given as a result of the appraisal as important too, since they will want to ensure that they aren’t lending more than they could potentially get back should they need to repossess and sell in the event of the homeowner defaulting on their mortgage.

Here’s what you need to know about what you can expect to happen during a home appraisal.

Market Evaluation

Your home appraiser will need to evaluate the property market in your area. This will involve looking at recent sales of comparable homes in your area to see what they were appraised at and how much they sold for. Your appraiser will also consider your local area, how popular it is, how many homes are for sale, and how quickly they are selling.

Researching the Property

As well as checking out the market, your appraiser will want to look at the history of the property in question and the public records associated with it. This will include the property’s tax history, which can indicate how its value has changed over the years. Your appraiser will also check whether the home falls on any flood zones, areas of subsidence, or anything else that could be cause for concern.

Home Inspection

The largest and best-known element of a home appraisal, the home inspection will involve a comprehensive look at the property from top to bottom, both inside and out. Your appraiser will take photographs too. Some of the things that they will take into consideration include:

• The number and size of the rooms
   

• The location of the house (whether it’s near water, lakes, park, etc., or less desirable features like train tracks or a busy highway)
   

• The condition of the house
   

• How energy efficient the house is
   

• How the house is heated
   

• What exterior features there are, such as driveways, storage units, and garages
   

Using all of the information that’s obtained, your appraiser will calculate the final value of the property and submit this, in a report, to you, your lender, and the seller.

For more information about what happens during a home appraisal, please contact our dedicated real estate team at Pacific Real Estate Group in Rancho Cucamonga, California by calling 888-452-0974 today.