The decision to list your house for sale involves many tasks; perhaps the most difficult may be deciding on the price. Often, agents and sellers don’t agree on the price, and this is where an appraisal can help. A pre-listing appraisal refers to an appraisal conducted at the behest of a homeowner who wants to put their property up for sale. It is an unbiased, thorough examination of the property’s condition and quality, measuring and calculation of the gross living area, consideration of recent improvements and so on. The appraiser will then compare your property to similar properties that were recently sold in your market area to arrive at a fair market value for your property.

Here are five reasons you need this appraisal:

  1. It’s a reality check: Often, homeowners may hike up the asking price because of their emotional attachment to their home, or because they place too much importance on features they have added, like say a Jacuzzi, or a home theater system, which may or may not really fetch a big price in their neighborhood. It especially helps if your home has been on the market for a pretty long time but hasn’t found any takers. Maybe you have overpriced it, and it’s time to do a check.
  2. You have recently spent a significant about of money on renovations: it’s possible that you have made a lot of repairs to the house, quite a bit of it unseen. It could include structural enhancement, adding a pool, modernizing your kitchen, new heating and cooling system, security systems – anything actually. The reason you need an appraisal in this scenario is that it will help you understand how much of what you spent you can actually hope to recover when you sell the house. For example, if you spent $30,000 on a swimming pool, the appraiser may only add $15,000 to the value of the house – because that’s what it would be worth to a potential buyer in your market segment. The value of amenities can vary significantly depending on the neighborhood and market area.
  3. It’s handy during sale negotiations: Some buyers can drive a pretty hard bargain, and sale negotiations can go on for weeks or even months. In such cases, having an appraisal report – which is an unbiased, professional opinion of a third party – may come in very handy to convince the buyer why they need to pay your asking price, or at least come close to it.
  4. Your home is atypical for your neighborhood: if your house is the smallest or the largest in your neighborhood, deciding on a sale price can be tricky; after all, one of the chief considerations during a home appraisal is the square footage of the property! Usually, when fixing the price for homes whose sizes are not the norm for that neighborhood, a price other than the prevailing price per square foot may be considered by the appraiser. An experienced professional will be able to determine this.
  5. No comparable properties have been sold in your neighborhood recently: When this happens, it can be indeed extremely difficult for you as a homeowner, to decide on the listing price. However, a professional appraiser with years of experience will know just which areas or neighborhoods are comparable to yours, and will look at sales figures of comparable properties in that place – and arrive at a market value, after considering all the other factors mentioned earlier.

Thinking of putting your home up for sale in central Arkansas? Consult Nabholz Appraisals Inc. for a thorough and professional appraisal service, and put your mind at ease. Call us now on 501-327-6103 to learn more.