Appraisals are issued by licensed real estate appraisers, and are basically a report on the value of your home.  With each purchase and/or refinance, you will need to have a current appraisal.  The market fluctuations are changing the guidelines on appraisals as well as loan packages that are offered.  If you are selling your home, you may want to have an appraisal done to make sure you know where you stand in the marketplace.

Lenders rely on appraisals to give up to date valuations on any properties they are financing.  The appraisals can help or hurt your financing, depending on what is printed on them.  Here are just a few items that you may want to check on your appraisal.

• Is the appraisal more than 90 days old?
  • Not to long ago you could use an appraisal that was done anytime in the last 12 months, but with the market fluctuations, now appraisals need to be a maximum of 90 days.
• Check for “flags” that lenders may question.
  • Is your appraisal marked that the property values in your area are declining?
  • Is there an over supply of homes for sale in your neighborhood?
  • Marketing time – how long are homes staying on the market before selling?
• Are the comparable sales on the appraisal more than 90 days old?  You may need to see if the appraiser can find better comparables for your home that have recently sold.
• Check the interested party contributions.  This will state if any sellers had to pay for their buyer’s closing costs, etc.  Make sure these are not excessive for the area.
• Do not put your home on the market, then remove it and place it back on the market again.  It will affect your appraisal.  Most especially if the price is changed.
• Make sure the comparable sales are in your neighborhood.  Sometimes the appraiser will have to go outside the immediate area, but normally the comparable properties need to be in your neighborhood.
  • Also, the quality and design of the comparable home need to be similar.  The sidewalks should also be somewhat the same as the appraised property.
  • The age, site size, gross living area, condition, etc. should be the same as the appraised property.