Pre-listing appraisal services - IRR-Residential Zenith Appraisals

Pre-Listing Appraisal Services

If you’re working with a real estate agent to list your property, more than likelythey’ll provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) that lists selected sales in your area as one of the first steps in determining what to set as the “Listing Price".This step is vital if you're going to maximize your profit and minimize the home’s time on the market.

But even if you're working with the most experienced real estate agent, it's probably in your best interest to have an "objective" third-party's opinion of value prior to signing a Listing Agreement.And that’s where we come in. We can provide you with a pre-listing appraisal so both you and your agent have an accurate description of your home's features and a detailed analysis of the most recent and similar "comparable sales" or as they're commonly called, "Comps". In addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your home will attract buyers, a professional appraisal can:

Be a very valuable negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer
Impress buyer’s with written proof of your home’s condition inside and out
Make yourself aware of problems and eliminate last-minute repair hassles that might delay a closing
Decrease the chances of unknown problems that cause sales to fall through
Eliminate the wait for the buyer or their mortgage company to get the appraisal done on their own

Many people are surprised when they find out that the market value of their home is much more than they thought, so investing in a professional appraisal actually allowed these people to receive several thousand more dollars than they thought they would when their home was sold. Others have an inflated opinion of their home's value and an appraisal helped them to realistically price their home in order for it to sell. An overpriced home will not attract buyers, which means no offers and no closing and that you have wasted valuable time, money, and efforts.

Improvements to add value
In addition to “how much?”, there may be other important questions to ask yourself before listing your home. Questions like ''Would it be better to paint the entire house before we sell it?”, ''Should I put in that third bathroom?'', ''Should I complete my kitchen remodel?'' Many things which we do to our houses have an effect on their value. Unfortunately, not all of them have an equal effect. While a kitchen remodel may improve the appeal of a home, it may not add nearly enough to the value to justify the expense.

We can step in and help make these decisions. Unlike a real estate agent, an appraiser has no vested interest in what amount the house sells for. Our appraisal fees are based on efforts to complete the report and not a percentage of the sales price. So a professional appraisal can often help homeowners make the best decisions on investing in their homes and setting a fair sales price.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

1. Our privacy principles: We are committed to protecting our clients’ personal and financial information. This privacy statement addresses what nonpublic personal information we collect, what we do with it, and how we protect it.

2. How we protect information: We restrict access to any nonpublic personal information about you that we collect to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information.

3. Where do we collect information from: We may collect and maintain nonpublic personal information in the course of providing you with the appraisal services you requested, including:

Information we receive from you on applications, letters of engagement, forms found on our web site, correspondence, or conversations, such as your name, address, telephone number and social security number.

Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates or others, including, but not limited to, payment history, parties to transactions and other financial information.

Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency such as a credit history.

4. What information we may disclose:

OPTION #1: We do not disclose nonpublic personal information about clients or former clients except as permitted by law. (If you select this option and you in fact don’t share information with anyone, then your form is done – if you share information as permitted under one of the exceptions, i.e., as permitted by law, then you will need to include that disclosure. See, for example part C(3) of the article on preparing a disclosure form.)

OPTION #2: We may disclose the nonpublic personal information about you described above, primarily to provide you with the appraisal services you seek from us.

5. Who we share information with: Unless you tell us not to, we may disclose nonpublic personal information of the type described above about you to the following types of third parties:

· Financial service providers as they pertain to your business, such as banks and lending institutions, estate planners, mortgage brokers, tax attorneys, etc.

· Non-financial companies as they pertain to your business, such as retailers, direct marketers, etc.

· We may also disclose nonpublic personal information about you to nonaffiliated third parties as permitted by law. (If you include this provision then you will also need to include another section identifying the types of nonaffiliated third parties to whom you are referring in this provision, See, for example part C(3) of the article on preparing a disclosure form.)

· You may limit information shared about you. If you prefer that we not disclose nonpublic personal information about you to third parties, you may opt out of those disclosures, that is, you may direct us not to make those disclosures (except those permitted by law). If you wish to opt out, please notify us in writing at the above address.