Five Steps to Swifter Turn Times

Appraising is an always changing profession. Regularly, it seems, appraisers are asked to provide extra information or have steps added to their appraisal process. They do this extra work to ensure the end user gets the best information available. To keep up with the always changing requirements, Homeowner Appraisal Services is always researching additional tools and improving processes to increase efficiency so we can do more work for you. At Homeowner Appraisal Services we know that time is important to everybody, so below are some things you can do to hasten the process when you order an appraisal with Homeowner Appraisal Services.

Order your appraisals electronically.: By ordering online, you get automatic e-mail notifications that the assignment was received, and fast, secure .PDF format report delivery. This tip alone will save the most time! No longer do we have to re-key information from a fax, and you don't have to wonder whether the order was received.
Complete and accurate subject property information is essential.: Being just one number off on the street address can really add unnecessary time to an appraisal assignment. Unique identifiers like a tax parcel number, plat map number, or subdivision name are great data to include with the assignment. Even a list of recent area sales is welcome — though be advised that professional appraisers are lawfully required to do their own due diligence on comparable sales, and ours might differ from yours.
Are you letting us know up front any elements of the property that might make it unique?: It's relatively easy to appraise a cookie-cutter home. What takes time is analyzing how features unique to a property add to or detract from what otherwise would be a property's market value. Let us know up front when you order your report if there are unique characteristics of the home or surrounding area -- for example, it's recently had an addition built on, it's subject to zoning restrictions, it's susceptible to flooding. These are things we would find out on our own anyway, and knowing them sooner is likely to make your report arrive more quickly.
What are you doing to make the homeowner of the home aware of what to expect?: One of the most tedious steps of the appraisal process is confirming an inspection date with the occupants of the home. It's understandable for a homeowner to be uneasy with an unknown person looking in every corner of their home, taking pictures, and making copious notes. One common belief is that they need to make the place spotless before the appraisal inspection, with the notion that will make the house appraise higher. And will choose to not schedule the appointment until it is cleaned.

Coming from you -- someone they've been working with on their loan -- a little bit about the appraisal process, who we are, and especially that dusting and polishing won't increase their home's value one little bit, and can decrease the time it takes to inspect a home. Please feel free to point them to this website, where we have several pages of relevant information for homeowners as well as others describing the appraisal process. They can even call us if they want to familiarize themselves with the staff and our services. And tell them it benefits them to set the appointment quickly!
Are you using our website as a resource to keep tabs on the status of your report?: Phone and fax tag are a thing of the past with up-to-the-minute status updates available online, anytime, 24/7. As we complete each important milestone in an assignment, that information can be viewed instantly online. It's never been easier to track your report's status.