Appraisal services for Columbia and Howard County homeowners
The top 7 reasons why MD homeowners hire Astute Appraisals, Inc.:
Do you own a home in or near Columbia? Do you need help determining the price of your real estate?
At Astute Appraisals, Inc., we understand the individual needs of a consumer in need of appraisal services. While our usual business clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get extra customer service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them. Pre-listing Services/For Sale By Owner (FSBO)It's very hard to be objective about your home because you probably have an emotional attachment to it. A professional appraiser is objective and will tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. In addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your home will attract many interested buyers, a professional appraisal is a very valuable negotiating tool once you have a likely buyer. The appraisal is something concrete to show the buyer. It's an independent third party's opinion of your home's value, and not just you saying how much your home is worth. Interested buyers assume you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be more likely to give credibility to a qualified appraiser's value report than yours. Need to cancel PMI?A fashionable way to cut costs for homeowners is getting the PMI removed from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan amount is below 80% of the value of your house. In most cases you can apply to a lender to have the PMI canceled from your loan. We're experts in helping homeowners just like you rid yourselves of undesirable PMI insurance. Challenge a property tax assessmentLets say you live in a local area that's declining -- your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued. This means you are going to pay higher taxes than you should be paying. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the sooner you take care of things like this, the better. Getting an appraisal report from Astute Appraisals, Inc. is your chief weapon when contesting your property tax assessment. Was your HELOC recently frozen?Even if your specific property has not declined in value, your lender may choose to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your home is in or near a declining area. This can this be unsuitable from a cash flow point of view, and bad for your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. An expert appraisal from Astute Appraisals, Inc. can help you reinstate your HELOC. Field and Desktop Appraisal Review ServicesHave you just gotten a copy of your appraisal and you'd prefer to have a seasoned professional double-check it for preciseness or do you need a second opinion without the added expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? In a field review we will go out and check the subject and comparables in question. Or, if you're in a hurry, we can provide you with a desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files. Do you need a retrospective review of an appraisal report? Astute Appraisals, Inc. can help with that too. Even though this is typically requested by banks, you may want to make use of this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your home. |