How to prepare for an appraisal - kind of

By Greg Swander

Selling your home can sometimes seem like a marathon instead of a sprint. Your first step is finding a REALTOR® that you feel confident in that when you hand them the baton, they will get you to the finish line. Your REALTOR® will game plan with you discussing the multiple hurdles you will have to clear going forward. (Ok, I am done with my track and field analogies now!)

First you need to list your home. Your REALTOR® will take some photos and write up an appealing listing paragraph for potential buyers. After posting online, you have a buyer interested in coming and viewing your property. Next you find out the buyer is very interested in your property and they provide an offer with the buyer being financed through a mortgage lender. You and your REALTOR® work through the details and negotiations and now you are under contract! Phew that was the hard part, right? Time to sit back and start packing and get ready for closing. Well not just yet, most likely your contract includes a due diligence period to allow time for your buyer to do inspections.

The buyer schedules inspections and you hold your breath. After inspections the buyer provides an ICA (investigation contingency amendment) which outlines some issues found during inspections that the buyer would like resolved prior to closing. You and your REALTOR® huddle up and determine how to tackle these findings in the inspection (I said I was done with track and field analogies, not sports in general). After some continued negotiations by your REALTOR® you come to terms on an amendment that satisfies both you and the buyer. Yeah, you are through the due diligence period and now you can start packing!

But then you receive notification that the buyer’s lender is sending out someone to do an appraisal on your property. Wait, they already did inspections so why is there an appraiser coming out to inspect the home? 

You wonder, ‘what do I need to do NOW after everything I have already done up to this point.’ The answer is - nothing really. You may think you need to spend the time to make your house look pristine or else the appraiser is going to undervalue your home. The truth of the matter is that the
appraiser will simply come into your home to do measurements and take a few pictures of the property. The appraiser is simply there to take a "snapshot" of the house in order to do a comparison with other homes in the area. You could clean every nook and cranny and it wouldn't do a thing to increase the appraisal value.

So, the answer to "how to prepare for your appraisal of your home" is to simply not worry about it
and go on with your day as normal. Once the appraisal is complete the buyer’s lender will make a call to the bullpen and bring in the closer. (As we are going into October, I figured it was appropriate to end with a baseball one!)

This article was brought to you by Greg Swander. Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Team Real Estate in Windham. Call him anytime at 207-650-1095 or email him at GDSwander@gmail.com for any and all of your real estate needs.