Obtaining a home appraisal is a key part of your loan process if you are doing a refinance or purchasing a new property. Aside from making a lending decision, appraisals are also used for estate purposes, divorce, tax, or just to figure out what your house is worth when trying to sell it.  Whatever your individual case may be, there are ways you can prepare for your home appraisal.

• Phone Interview – Typically when you talk with the appraiser initially it is over the phone or email. During this time, it is a good idea to talk about the characteristics of your property. The most pertinent information is the floorplan, square footage, amenities, recent improvement, and anything that may affect value. This is a good time to tell the appraiser about any additions that were completed or any discrepancies between how your home is listed on public records.  This helps the appraiser so that he doesn’t uncover any surprises during his on-site inspection. But it also helps you the homeowner because it saves you time.  If the appraiser has to check permits, plans, and re-evaluate comparables this can cost you valuable time that isn’t always a luxury when you have a short deadline and rate lock looming.
• Day of the Inspection – During the on-site inspection, the appraiser is going to observe both the exterior and interior of your home.  He or she will need access to all the bedrooms, bathrooms, side yards, garage, etc.  The more information the appraiser has about your property, the more credible his analysis and opinion of value will be.  As a matter of fact, most lenders now are looking for pictures of every room in the house as well as exterior parts of the house and all things that may be positively and negatively affecting value. It is a good idea to make sure there are no locked or blocked doors and rooms so that the appraiser can move throughout your property with ease and take note of all the important property characteristics. Without complete access, this could delay your appraisal report as lenders will require the appraiser to come back an additional time to take note of what was missing and not seen.
• “I have a house full of kids and don’t have time to clean up!  Do I need my house professionally cleaned or staged?” – We all have busy lives and cleaning up is the last thing that’s on our mind when we are working and taking care of our family.  There is no need to go above and beyond with cleaning or staging your home.  The appraiser should be looking at your property as if it were vacant. Personal belongings that are not attached to the house are not considered in the appraiser’s opinion of value.  During our inspection, we look at the quality of the construction, finishes, paint, remodeling and updating, things that are fixed and attached to the house and will most likely go with the house when ownership changes hands. Personal property shouldn’t factor into the value, just make sure you don’t have a pile of clothes blocking that hole in the wall!
• Things to point out during the inspection – As the appraiser is making his or her way through your property, point out or provide a list of recent remodeling and when they were completed. Big-ticket items like a complete kitchen renovation, new bathrooms, new flooring, roof, windows, etc. If you have an addition, make sure you tell the appraiser and provide the permits so that everything can be accounted for on the appraisal report. Again, the more information the appraiser has the more credible the analysis and ultimately the appraisal will be.
• Be nice :) – The appraiser has been hired by the lender (if this is for a refinance/purchase/HELOC) or by an attorney/CPA (estate/family/tax planning) to give an opinion of value for those purposes and parties. The appraiser has no personal incentive to love or hate your home. It is best to work together with your appraiser so that he or she can put together and develop the clearest and concise appraisal report that is credible and will stand up to scrutiny by various parties who may be intended users of the report. Most appraisers are just like everyone else and want to do a good honest job. So try to be nice :)