If you\’d like to know the value of your property quickly and with a high level of precision, the person to go to is a property valuer.
A property appraiser is a real estate professional who is often also operating as a real estate agent. They have relevant local knowledge and experience to provide you an estimation of your property\’s value fast and reliably.
But like any other profession, there are good assessors and bad ones. How are you able to avoid the bad ones?
Following are 4 things to look for when selecting a good property appraiser:
1. Professional Qualifications and/or Registration
Depending on your country and state, it may be an obligation for property appraisers to be certified or approved. But in several countries, including Australia, this is not the case. However, there are organisations that work as registries for real-estate professionals.
The individual you are considering should be a member of a minimum of one registered body of property professionals. So ask him or her about her qualifiactions and professional memberships. If there are none,look for someone else.
2. Check the Company or Organisation
If the valuer claims to be part of a rating agency or company, then, ask for their members card and have it copied for your research purposes. Check with the agency associated with the appraiser. Ask for the appraiser\’s track record before you decide to hire the services offered or not.
Do a simple search on Google for the organisation and the person\’s name and check if what you find corresponds to what the prospective valuer has told you.
3. Check for detailed familiarity of your local area
Ask the appraiser if she or he has a high percentage of work in your area. The larger the percentage, the better. Why? It suggests the appraiser knows the \”ins and outs\” of the specific neighborhood and has excellent knowledge on the area. A good way to check this is to find out how well he knows your street and nearby houses or facilities when you tell him your address.
4. Personal Visit
Evaluations cannot be done remotely or over the telephone. A good valuer will insist on coming to your house and inspect it personally. A valuer would also be well placed to give you some information on which enhancements you might make to your home so as to increase its market value. As per point 3, she should need little direction to find your home. Also, most real-estate agents don\’t charge any fees for an appraisal.
These are four things that you need to know about your valuer. If these four areas check out fine, then you probably have found a good property appraiser. You now stand to get a quality answer to the question \”What is my house worth?\”.
Ken Walker is an approved expert to Real Estate Appraisals, a website devoted to finding the best real estate professionals to perform a property appraisal for you.