What can Your Agent Help You With?: Home Appraisals

You’ve heard that it takes a village to raise a child. At EXP Realty, we also say that it takes a team to sell your home.

When you hire a EXP agent, you are hiring an entire team of highly experienced real estate professionals. Our agents have an average of 10 years of full-service real estate experience. And in that time, they’ve developed relationships with many of the area’s top service professionals.

In our new “What can Your Agent Help You With?” series, we’ll break down 15 services that your agent can help you with. Today’s topic: Home Appraisals.

Your Agent can Help You with Home Appraisals

Setting the correct list price is the most important decision homeowners make when selling a home.

Our agents are prepared to combine their experience and market analysis tools with your first-hand knowledge of the home to get top market value. One of the best tools for this is a home appraisal.

What is a Home Appraisal?

A home appraisal is an unbiased professional opinion of a property’s current value. In a home sale transaction, the appraisal is used to determine whether the home’s contract price is appropriate given the home’s location, permanent physical features and amenities, and current condition.

Appraisers do a complete visual inspection of the interior and exterior of the home and note any conditions that adversely affect the property’s value, such as needed repairs. The appraisal report includes street maps and photos of the home and comparable properties, as well as details about square footage, market sales data, public land records, and public tax records used to determine the property’s fair market value.

When would You Need a Home Appraisal?

A seller could order an appraisal before putting a home on the market to assess any repairs needed and help set the initial listing price. Or, more often, buyers order an appraisal during the due diligence period to assure their home loan lender that the money they are requesting is appropriate to the value of the home. An appraisal typically costs a few hundred dollars. When ordered by the buyer, the buyer pays the appraisal fee.

How do You Find a Qualified Home Appraiser?

The Appraisal Institute, an association of professional real estate appraisers, has defined what constitutes a qualified home appraiser. Qualified professional home appraisers should be licensed or state certified and be familiar with the local area. Federal regulations also require that the appraiser be impartial and have no direct or indirect interest in the transaction.

In today’s rapidly moving real estate market, setting a competitive listing price is key to selling your home for top dollar. It’s easy to do a quick internet search for local home appraisers in North Carolina. But why worry whether you’re contracting the best appraiser in town when you can be sure?

Need a qualified home appraiser? Ask your agent for their recommendation!

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Begin the Plan for Your Home Sale Today!

In any real estate transaction, it takes an expert team to get you where you want to go. When you, your agent and area service professionals work together, you are more likely to sell for top dollar.

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All real estate is local. In order to make confident real estate decisions, we believe it is important for you to have timely and neighborhood-specific information. If you would like more information about buying a home in NC, our experts at EXP Realty are here to help. Contact us today to speak with a EXP agent about buying homes or land in North Carolina.