What exactly is an appraisal?

An appraisal is an unbiased professional opinion of a home’s value. In a purchase-and-sale transaction, an appraisal is used to determine whether the home’s contract price is appropriate given the home’s condition, location, and features.

What is the purpose of an appraiser?

The role of the appraiser is to provide objective, impartial, and unbiased opinions about the value of real property—providing assistance to those who own, manage, sell, invest in, and/or lend money on the security of real estate.

What happens during an appraisal?

During a home appraisal, a licensed appraiser conducts a thorough inspection of the property. These factors include the condition of the property, any upgrades or additions made to the property, the size of the lot and “comps” or recently sold properties of comparable size and condition in the same market.

How long does an appraisal take?

In real estate, a home appraisal typically takes two days to a week to fully complete. To complete the appraisal process, the mortgage lender must first order and schedule the appraisal, then gather data about the home. Finally, the appraiser needs to review the data to complete the appraisal report.

Who pays for the appraisal?

Although lenders request most appraisals, the borrower pays the appraisal cost. The lender is actually ordering the appraisal on the borrower’s behalf to protect the buyers too. Sure, the lender doesn’t want to lend on a poor investment, but you sure don’t want to buy one either.

How do I know when the appraisal is done?

While shorter forms can be done in as little as six hours, depending on their workload and the complexity of the home, the appraiser should have the report completed in less than a week. Generally, from the time the lender orders it, you can expect to see an appraisal report anytime between two days and one week.

Can you get a mortgage without an appraisal?

A no-appraisal mortgage is a home loan that doesn’t require an appraisal. The majority of lenders provide no-appraisal mortgages for refinancing purposes while others may offer them for first-time loans. No-appraisal loans are offered by a number of government agencies, including the Federal Housing Administration.

How long after appraisal is done do you get results?

On average, a home appraisal takes two weeks from start to finish. It typically takes a few weeks to receive an appraisal report. However, your appraisal may take even longer, depending on the complexity of the appraisal and local market demand.

How long does it take to get an appraisal report back?

Generally, from the time the lender orders it, you can expect to see an appraisal report anytime between two days and one week. But if the market is particularly busy, it can take up to two weeks for it to end up in the lender’s hand.

What to expect from an appraisal?

Full Access. Your home appraiser needs unfettered access to every area of your home,including the sometimes cluttered basement,garage and attic.

What factors into an appraisal?

Here are the factors used in making the home appraisal: Location of the property- whether it is in the urban, suburban or rural areas. The utilities present and any improvements off-site will also be identified whether it is private or public. The house will be described according to number of units, stories, design, age, condition.

What is an appraisal when buying a home?

A home appraisal is an unbiased estimate of the true (or fair market) value of what a home is worth. All lenders order an appraisal during the mortgage loan process so that there is an objective way to assess the home’s market value and ensure that the amount of money requested by the borrower is appropriate.

What does an appraisal do for You?

During an appraisal, an expert evaluates your home and property and gives you an estimate on how much it is worth . Appraisals are conducted by professionals who are licensed by the state – they have to take courses and do an internship to get licensed – to do evaluations of homes.