Selling a home can be an emotional time and you clearly want to put all the best chances on your side. Unfortunately, things aren’t always clear cut such as whether to get an appraisal or not. At the end of the day, it’s your decision and only you will know how the pros and cons feel to you. However, a Realtor Vancouver professional can be great advice for you so perhaps bounce it off with them also.
We all know that money is the cause of so much stress. It can also cause us to have many knee-jerk reactions. Naturally, anyone selling their home wants the maximum amount of money for it. Some might think that getting an appraisal will help drive that. However, it’s bit more complicated than that, as you’ll see below. Either way, the key to a successful sale is to try to stay as calm as possible. That’s why it’s so crucial to have a great Realtor Vancouver professional that you feel you can trust. Let them guide you and advise you, but in the meantime, here are some general tips.
What is an Appraisal?
- An unbiased view of a property’s value
- The buyer’s responsibility
An appraisal is an unbiased professional view of a property’s value. Appraisals are important for buyers because lenders ask for them in order to calculate their mortgage rates. Generally, an appraisal is therefore the buyer’s responsibility. The easiest approach could therefore be to simply let the buyer’s lender organize the appraisal. The great thing is that then the buyer clearly covers all the costs. In those cases, appraisals tend to be done towards the end of the process and a property’s value can change over the time of the process. Having said that, there are a few advantages of doing an appraisal as a seller.
Advantages of an Appraisal before Selling with a Realtor Vancouver professional
- Reassurance of the value of your home’s value
- Your appraiser can back up a lender’s dispute
It’s hard to know how much your home is worth even if you’ve been looking at comparable listings for months. Of course your Realtor Vancouver professional will advise you but sometimes we want to reassure ourselves. A great way to do that isgetting a third-party professional opinion. Once you have this in hand, it can also help you further down the line if the buyer is having problems with their lender. Your appraisal can potentially act as a supporting document to help them with their loan and so close your sale.
Why you Shouldn’t get an Appraisal
- Extra cost
- Appraisers give different answers
- Market value could be different
Extra Cost
Let’s not forget that an appraisal is a buyer’s responsibility so, simply put, why should you take on the extra cost? This can start at USD 500 and go far beyond that number. You already have many costs to deal with, including Realtor Vancouver fees as well as legal and tax costs.
Appraisers Give Different Answers
Conducting an appraisal isn’t an exact science. This involves comparing your property to recent comparable sales as well as to historical sales. However, if there have been no recent sales then the final number might rely fully on historical statistics. We all know how much house prices can change in as little as a few months. Therefore, your appraisal value could be very off.
Market Value could be Different
When we talk about market value, we refer to what someone is willing to pay at that moment in time for your property. We all like to think that we’re rational beings but it’s been shown time and again that we are overpoweredour emotions. This is especially true when buying a home. Therefore, a buyer might be willing to pay a lot more than your appraisal value. In this situation, an appraisal could drive you to put the price of your house down before you’ve even heard the buyer’s proposal. You could be cutting yourself very short.
Final Thoughts on Getting an Appraisal before Selling with a Realtor Vancouver professional
At the end of the day, it’s your decision whether to get an appraisal or not. You know what you need for your own tranquility of mind. Some people like to have a baseline number before they talk to a Realtor Vancouver professional and others are quite happy to go with their recommendation. However, as a general rule, it’s more strategic to simply let the buyer pay for the cost of the appraisal. Bottom line, they’re responsible for it and they need it for their lender. Also, you never know what their emotions are telling them about your property. You might end up with a much better market value than any appraiser would give you. So enjoy that and save some money. After all, why not?
