The Appraisal Process

If you're getting a mortgage, you likely are gonna need an appraisal on the property. What that means is once you're under contract and you've gone through your inspection and you agree to move forward with the property, the bank is gonna order an appraisal. The way that works is the banks have third party companies where they hire an independent third party appraiser to come out and look at the property, tell you what their professional opinion of the value is. The appraiser's gonna look in that specific neighborhood at things that have sold within the last three to six months, similar size, similar conditions, similar views. And they're gonna make adjustments for square footage, for condition, location.

If your home backs up to a busy street and the other home didn't, they're gonna make an adjustment for that. All that stuff goes into the value. And the appraiser's going to give you a written report. Typically it's back within 72 hours or so from when they do the appraisal. And that's gonna be what the bank uses to judge the value to make sure that you as the buyer, aren't overpaying. All of the contracts have a built in appraisal contingency, so if you're buying the house for 500,000, but the appraisal only comes in at 480,000, unless you've written something else into the contract, you, as the buyer have the right to get out of that deal, you don't have to overpay for a property. The appraisal is there to protect you as the home buyer. If you have any questions about the home buying process, as always give us a call, shoot us a text or send us an email.