What the Homeowner Should Do to
Prepare the Property for an Appraisal

By- Darius G. Carter
A1 Los Angeles Home Appraisal

The appearance of your house on the day I do that home appraisal can affect its valuation. You want to maximize its value, so there are a number of things that you ought to do to prepare for the arrival of your property appraiser.

First of all, make it easy on the appraiser. Any pets that might be a problem, such as dogs, just put them away. And tell your appraiser where you have them locked up so he doesn't go walking into a room where you've put them.

You must clean up the house. A lot of folks just leave it as it is. Sometimes the house is a complete mess. And we What the Homeowner Should Do to Prepare the Property for an Appraisal.have to take pictures of the place, which show dirty dishes on the table. Put them in the dishwasher. Clean the place up. Scrub marks off the walls. Do some painting if necessary.

If you want the maximum possible appraisal for your property, you will help yourself get it by making your home look as enticing as possible. And you needn't spend a large amount of money to do this.

As a home appraiser, I'm trying to make the house look as pleasing to the eye as possible. People will be looking at those pictures we shoot. Usually the ones looking at them will be finance people. The folks at the bank want to see evidence that the house is being taken care of before they give you any money.

If they see that the house looks messy, probably they will be thinking that the other issues with any house, such as plumbing, aren't being addressed. So we have to make it look appealing.

I can't put a percentage value on the difference between a house when it is messy and that same house when the place is tidied up, but it does make a difference when we have to compare it to another similar house in order to establish value.

When we go to the next house down the block to look at a "comparable sell," if that neighboring house is cleaned up and looks nice, we have to gauge the difference, and we have to say the subject house doesn't look as good. We will say that the comparable neighboring house is superior to the subject house, when in fact it would be the exact same thing if it were just cleaned up.

Apply some elbow grease.


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Darius G. Carter, Appraiser
&
Michael McKown

416 S. Via Montana
Burbank, CA 91501

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The topic of this pages is: What the Homeowner Should Do to Prepare the Property for an Appraisal.