A proper appraisal by a licensed professional is often necessary in order to sell or refinance a home. Getting a fair appraisal means getting a fair price for your home. This is certainly not a job for amateurs; you want a seasoned professional to properly assess the value of your home. When searching for the top property appraiser in New York it’s critical to look for the person with the best education and the proper license. However, it is also important to consider how much experience the appraiser has and what their methodology for their work is. The best candidates for the job will satisfy the highest standards in all of these categories. With so much at stake it is important to find the right person for the job.
Qualifications
When searching for an appraiser for your house the first question for potential candidates should be, “what are your qualifications?” When we talk about qualifications we are referring to licensing. For property appraisers there are basically two types of licenses required by law, Certified Residential Real Property Appraiser and Certified General Real Property Appraiser. Both of these categories should have at least an associate’s degree, preferably a bachelor’s degree or higher. These qualifications are important not only because they will help to ensure that the person doing the work will perform adequately but also because many banks and lenders will not recognize appraisals from unlicensed appraisers.
Experience
After checking on a prospective appraiser’s qualifications, the next step will be to check on the experience that the appraiser has. Ask for a resume of past appraisals so you can see what type of work this individual has done in the past. If possible it might be worth checking how much the properties on the prospective appraiser’s resume sold for compared with how they were appraised. Make sure that the listings on the prospective appraiser’s resume are recent to give a fair view of the work they have been doing recently.
References please
In addition to past experience, references are very telling of the quality of job a person does. Ask the prospective appraiser for a list of references of people that they have worked for. This list should be current and the work done should be recent. Contact a few people on the list and ask how their experience with the prospective appraiser was.
Local Knowledge
When selling a property, especially a home, it’s critical that an appraiser knows the area well. It wouldn’t be fair to judge a property based on standards from another location. A quality appraiser understands the local area and knows what is expected, what is extra, and what is substandard. A quality appraiser will have a good working knowledge of the amenities in the area.
In addition to local knowledge, a quality appraiser will have a lot of experience with the type of property that you are selling. It wouldn’t make sense to choose a commercial appraiser to check over your residential property. You want to choose an expert in the type of property you are selling.
Methodology
The final step in choosing an appraiser for your property is to ask the prospective appraiser what their methodology is. Make sure that they have a sound methodology and one that will lead to sales. It’s important that appraisers are focused on the same things that real estate agents are focused on. If your property is assessed on the same points that it will be sold on it’s far more likely that you will get the price that you advertise for.
Selling a property is a big undertaking and there are many aspects to consider along the process. Making sure that you have a quality appraiser is an important first step to ensure that you get a fair price for your property.
