DIY Builds
DIY Builds
Photo: Ksenia Chernaya
8 Ways to Prepare for a Home Appraisal Get an early appraisal. ... Take care of quick fixes. ... Boost your curb appeal. ... Give your home a deep clean. ... Take a look at the comps. ... Check that everything is working properly. ... Go green. ... Talk up your home.
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When it comes to selling your home, finding a buyer is just the first step. Before you can close the deal, you need to pass two important milestones: the home inspection and the home appraisal. A home appraisal is a report of your home’s value in the market. It’s performed by a certified, state-licensed professional, whose primary job is to objectively evaluate your home and state how much it is worth. This is the number that determines if your home is priced appropriately in consideration of its location, features, and condition, particularly in relation to prices of comparable homes in your area that have previously closed a sale. If the appraisal comes in low, your buyer is likely to have trouble getting enough lending from the bank. If they can’t make up the difference in cash, you’ll either have to renegotiate the sale price or lose the buyer. Obviously, neither is a great scenario. Nor is it particularly uncommon: according to the most recent REALTORS Confidence Index Survey, published by the National Association of Realtors, 76% of home sales that closed in February 2018 had contract contingencies, and 44% of those were related to appraisal issues. You’ll never have full control over what your home will appraise for, but you can take steps to increase your chance of pricing where you need to. Here are 8 good places to start. Get an early appraisal The appraisal that ultimately dictates the lending amount is paid for by the buyer and typically done around the same time as the home inspection. But if you’re worried about your home’s worth, there’s no reason you can’t hire your own appraiser to come in and note areas of concern before you even put your home on the market. An early appraisal will give you the opportunity to address anything that might put your home’s value at risk, like a structural issue or broken fixtures. Even if you don’t make any changes, it will give you an idea of how you might want to price your home. Take care of quick fixes When an appraiser is evaluating your home, they’re bound to be influenced by any signs – big or small – that a property has not been well maintained. Simple fixes, such as repairing faulty cabinets, making paint touch-ups, and finally taking care of that perpetually running toilet will show that you’ve put time and effort into your home’s condition. It’s worth spending a few hundred dollars up front to take care of easily fixable problems. Failure to do so may result in losing much more than that amount on your appraisal. Boost your curb appeal Your home’s landscaping matters more than you might think. Upgrading your landscaping from average to excellent can increase your home’s value as much as 10-12%, according to research from Virginia Tech. While it might not be financially feasible to do a complete overhaul, you may want to make some small landscaping investments to boost your curb appeal and add to your home’s value. Planting some small trees, adding landscape lighting, replacing areas of dead grass with low maintenance vegetation, and even just giving your front door a fresh coat of paint can all add value without costing a ton of money. Give your home a deep clean By the time the home appraisal comes around you’re probably sick of keeping your home so spotless, but do a deep clean this one last time and it should pay off. A home will appear to have more worth when it’s clean, so get your scrub brush out and get down to business. Pay extra attention to areas that might not be on your regular cleaning rotation, like cabinet interiors and the corners of ceilings. Use a melamine sponge to get any scuffs off the walls, and shampoo your carpets to remove any lingering stains or odors. Focus on the exterior of your home as well, cleaning out gutters, wiping down the outsides of windows, and perhaps even giving the floor of your garage and the sides of your house a good power wash. Take a look at the comps Your home’s market value is determined in large part by how it compares to similar homes in the area that have recently sold. Your real estate agent should be able to pull information for you on recent closing sale prices in your neighborhood, which can provide you with some valuable insight into how your home measures up. Look closely at the listings of homes that are similar to yours and compare exterior and interior features and general condition. If a home sold for the price you’re aiming for but has a much nicer yard or more modern features, that suggests that if you want to get the same price you’ll need to make some upgrades. Check that everything is working properly A home inspector noting a broken fixture may result in a request from the buyer to fix it. A home appraiser noting a broken fixture may result in an under-appraised home. Go through your property and ensure that everything is working how it’s supposed to. Replace burned out bulbs, turn on any pilot lights that you have switched off, make sure your smoke alarms are showing they’re on, and take care of anything else that suggests something might not be quite right. While an appraiser won’t go quite into as much detail as the inspector will, it’s still in your best interest to show off that everything is in working order. Go green A few healthy, well-placed plants can go a long way toward making any space look fresh, modern, and clean. While you shouldn’t go out and break the bank at the nursery just for a home appraisal, you should think about ways to use greens and flowers to brighten up your rooms. If you already have plants, space them out so that they’re enhancing, but not cluttering, your home, and make sure to take off any dead leaves since those can be eyesores. If you don’t have any plants, pick up some fresh flowers at the store and arrange them in a couple sunny spots. Your realtor might have some fake plants you can borrow as well, as they often use them for showings. They won’t make a difference in what your appraisal comes in at, but plants will help your home look nicer and more put together. Talk up your home You’ll likely be around when the appraiser comes through, which means you’ve got a great opportunity to sell the finer features of your home, including unique assets and recent improvements. Don’t be shy about pointing out that the living room carpet is new or the trees on the side of the house bloom stunning flowers every spring. Give the appraiser space to look around (sticking too close may suggest you’re worried they’re going to find something that you need to explain), but take some time before they leave to point out the things that make your home special and worthy of its asking price. When you’re making upgrades or changes in preparation for your home appraisal, keep in mind the golden rule that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Spend your time, money, and effort on things that clearly need attention, and don’t stress over the things that don’t. The buyer already decided they liked your home based on what they saw during their showing, so any fixes at this point are just to improve market value. If the appraisal comes in low and you lose your buyer, then you can start considering more extensive upgrades.
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