Common myths about appraising

It is enforced by the government that a real estate appraiser must be state-licensed to create appraisals for federally-related home sales in Texas. Also by law, you have the ability to receive a copy of the completed appraisal report from your lending agency. Contact our professional staff if you have any concerns about the appraisal process.

Myth: Assessed value should always be equal to market value.

Fact: While most states back the concept that assessed value approximates estimated market value, this commonly is not the case. Interior remodeling that the assessor is not aware of and a lack of reassessment on nearby properties are excellent examples of why this occurs.

Myth: The opinion of value of a property will differ depending upon if the appraisal is ordered for the buyer or the seller.

Fact: The value of the house does not affect the salary of the appraiser; due to this, the appraiser has no pressured interest in the value of the home. This means that he will conduct business with impartiality and independence regardless for whom the appraisal is conducted.

Myth: Any time market value is established, it should be the same as the replacement cost of the property.

Fact: Without any influence from any outside parties to purchase or sell, market value is what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller for a specific home. If the house were reconstructed, the dollar amount necessary to do so would be the replacement cost.

Myth: There are certain ways that appraisers use to determine the cost of a property, such as the price per square foot.

Fact: An appraisal is an assertion of data concluded from the property's size, location, proximity to specific facilities, the condition of the property and the worth of recent comparable sales. You can rely on Todd Ligon (512) 784-9022's appraisers to be honest in assessing this data.

Myth: In a robust economy - when the prices of houses in a given region are reported to be increasing by a certain percentage - the worth of individual properties in the vicinity can be expected to appreciate by that same percentage.

Fact: Any value at which an appraiser arrives in regards to a certain house is always individualized, based on certain factors concluded from the data of comparable houses and other specifications within the property itself. This is true in fair economic times as well as poor.

Myth: You can generally find what a property is worth simply by looking at the exterior.

Fact: Home value is concluded by a number of variables, including location, condition, improvements, amenities, and market trends. There's no real way to get all of this data from just examining the house from the outside.

Myth: Because consumers fund appraisal reports when applying for loans to buy or refinance their property, they own their appraisal report.

Fact: Unless a lender releases its interest in the report, it is legally owned by the lending agency that purchased the appraisal. Home buyers have to be supplied with a copy of the document through request because of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Myth: It doesn't matter to consumers what's in the report so long as it satisfies the requirements of their lending agency.

Fact: Only if consumers check out a copy of their appraisal report can they verify its accuracy and possibly need to question the result. Remember, this is probably the most expensive and important investment a consumer will ever make. There is a great deal of data stored in an appraisal that will probably be useful to the home buyer in the future, such as the legal and physical description of the property, square footage measurements, list of comparable properties in the neighborhood, neighborhood description and a narrative of current real-estate activity and/or market trends in the vicinity.