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For mortgage valuations
of improved residential property, this value is most often reported on a
standardized form, the Uniform Residential Appraisal Report.
Home Appraisal:
More Than Just House Value
By Bill Wehr
Most people, when buying a home, are first given a copy of the appraisal
at the closing table. In the excitement and stress of signing the final
mortgage papers, and arranging to get the keys to the new house, the
appraisal may be tucked away with the other closing documents to be
forgotten. There is information on the report worth knowing.
The lender probably told you what the
home value was soon after the appraiser completed the appraisal. Now
that you have a written copy in front of you, it offers much detail, and
tells you a lot about your home that you may not have considered. When
you get home pour some coffee, pull up a chair and look it over.
An appraisal is performed for a specific
client, to whom the appraiser has a fiduciary responsibility,
regardless of what party ultimately pays for the appraisal, whether
anyone actually pays for the appraisal, or when the appraisal is paid
for.
The first
several pages of the Uniform Residential Appraisal Report offer an in
depth profile of your property. The neighborhood section will reflect
the appraiser's analysis of whether the housing trends around you are
increasing stable or declining in value. The high end and low-end prices
and predominate values are given. This may be important to you as a
benchmark to think about if you are planning to resell in the next
several years.
The section
on improvements is where the appraiser gets to observe the general
condition of the home. The comments could range from noting the
upgrades such as new roof, interior painting or new carpeting. The
flip side would be warning about lap siding now in good condition
but subject to premature deterioration. Any negative comments about
condition may be something that could be corrected by you to
maintain or increase value.
In the USA minimum appraisal
standards and appraiser qualifications are the province of The
Appraisal Foundation which is chartered by Congress and classes.
The page on comparable sales gives you
the opportunity to see the exact homes with addresses that your home was
rated against. You will read how the appraiser made the adjustments to
each home's value relating to square footage, rooms, garage, lot size
and a number of other line items to come to a bottom line. There may be
a page called "location map" that will have arrows showing where each of
the comparable homes are located. You could take a little time and go
for a leisurely drive to check out the curb appeal of each of the homes.
In the UK, real estate appraisal is
known as property valuation and a real estate appraiser is a
land valuer or property valuer (usually a chartered
surveyor who specializes in property valuation).
These are just some of the highlights
of the appraisal. In the back pages there will be photos of the home and
likely photos of the comparable homes. The appraiser will go into more
depth relating to the neighborhood description, additional features of
the subject home and how the sales comparisons were analyzed. There
should be a page reflecting the floor plan of your home as measured by
the appraiser. In addition to the diagrams, there will be the
calculations for total area a breakdown of each foot of living area. The
appraisal will be a fairly complete picture of your home and will give
you a sense of what a financial asset you really have.
Bill Wehr publishes useful articles
about mortgages at
http://www.mortgagejourney.com Bill is the owner of Great Pacific
Northwest Mortgage, a residential mortgage company serving Oregon and
Washington. If you are buying or refinancing property in Oregon or
Washington & need mortgage information please call Bill, or complete a
secure on-line application at
http://www.portlandoregonmortgages.com. |
