Home Appraisals 101

The home appraisal process is an essential step when selling a home, as this is how the property's fair market value is determined. The appraisal comes far before Hilton Head movers arrive to pack up your precious belongings and safely transport them to your new residence. If you're a buyer looking at moving to Hilton Head, you should also know how the appraisal process works so that you are well informed about how it can affect the asking price of a home.

Why You Need an Appraisal

When selling your home, you determine the asking price based on how much you believe it's worth and how much you need to pay off the mortgage or pay for a new home. Since you're personally invested in the sale, your estimate is bound to be subjective. A home appraiser is an unbiased professional who uses specific criteria to objectively determine the fair market value of your home. Mortgage lenders require this because they want to make sure the property that's being used as collateral is actually worth what they are financing. Although Hilton Head movers aren't involved in the process, they won't be able to move you to your new home until you close the sale. If you understand how the value of your home is determined, you can be better prepared for the appraisal process, which will get you one step closer to calling All My Sons of Hilton Head to arrange your move.

Factors That Determine Value

Some of the factors that contribute to determining your home's appraised value are within your control, while other factors are things that you have no control over whatsoever. For example, the home appraiser will take into account where your home is located and the property values in the area. To do this the appraiser looks at recent home sales and what the homes have sold for. The basic components of your home also contribute to the overall value: number of bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage, among other components. Although these are things you can't change, there are factors you can work on to improve your home's appraisal value. Since a home inspection is part of the process, and areas in need of repair negatively affect the home's value, if you take care of these repairs before the process begins, you'll have one less thing to worry about that could lower the appraised value of your home. That means you'll be closer to putting a sold sign out front and having Hilton Head movers get you all packed up and ready to move.

As a seller, you'll encounter the appraisal process as part of closing on the sale of your home. If the appraisal comes back lower than your asking price, you can consider lowering the asking price to close the sale, or asking the buyer to make up the difference with a down payment. Sometimes getting the sale means doing a combination of both. With your home appraisal in hand, you're one step closer to completing the sale, and finally getting ready for your move with Hilton Head movers.