the Price of Home Appraisals

Our mortgage lender made us get a full appraisal for our house when we wanted to show we now had enough equity in our house to get rid of PMI (private mortgage insurance). We had to select an appraiser from a list of lender-approved state licensed and state certified appraisers. The appraiser came and did a walk--thru of the house, took pictures of the exterior front and back, and reviewed the deed and tax bill he had asked us to have available at the appointment. He asked what improvements and repairs we had recently done and what upgrades we had included when we had the house built. The entire appointment took just over thirty minutes. Two weeks later we received an unsigned copy of the appraisal report, the lender required that the original signed report be sent to them directly from the appraiser. The appraisal report consisted of a two page form report, a brief narrative description of the condition and quality of our house, data and pictures of the comparable sales and current listings, a sketch of the layout of our house, a street map showing the location of our house and the comparable houses, a copy of the plot plan, and a copy of the deed. The appraiser charged $325 for the appraisal and had to be paid at the time of the appointment. We had initially been quoted a price of $275 for this service but then our lender wanted the three current listings added to the report and this increased the cost of the report by $50. The appraiser indicated that if our transaction with this lender did not go through and we wanted copies of the appraisal report sent to other lenders it would cost $100 per signed copy.

The appraiser himself was prompt and professional, and the lender must have been okay with the appraisal report as our transaction went through without any problems. I had called other appraisers on the lender's list looking for a cheaper appraisal but they all charged between $300 and $400 for the report. The only negative thing is that the appraiser didn't seem to know our neighborhood as well as I thought he would, he asked directions to one of the comparable sales for example, and one of the houses he listed as being similar to our house is in a much less desirable area.

I was embarrassed when I saw the pictures the appraiser took of our house and included in the appraisal report. The kids' toys were all over the backyard, the garage door was open, the rakes and trash bins leaning against the side of the house, etc. I don't know if it really adds to value or not but if I had thought about it I would have made sure the outside of the house was picture perfect instead of spending all morning cleaning the inside, which didn't get photographed.