Five reasons why you want an honest appraiser

Often, the talk of the appraisal industry is about finding an appraiser that will “work with you” many times, this means lying about the value of your property. Let me tell you why this is a bad idea.

1. If you are renting and you’d like to buy the home, you want an honest opinion of value and may want to order your own appraisal. If you use the home owner’s appraisal, you may be paying too much or the appraisal may be too old to be accurate.

2. If you are going through a divorce, you need an honest opinion of value. This, of course, is obvious. If the home is appraised too high or too low, it may hurt one spouse or the other. If the appraiser will just write an appraisal with no influences whatsoever, this will be the best for both parties.

3. If you are dividing an estate, you want an honest value of the property so that you can properly divide the asset up. Whether you could be the owner of the home or you will be the recipient of the money from the home, you’ll be better off if you know that the appraiser was honest and that the money from the home was divided properly based on an accurate appraisal.

4. When refinancing your home, finding an appraiser to lie to your bank may seem like a good idea in the short run but it is not. Soon, you’ll have to refinance again, and you won’t be able to get the terms that you’d like without paying a large amount of money down. I’ve seen this happen to quite a few people. Their home does not appraise for what they need to make their loan work, so they must either pay a higher interest rate or use more cash to pay down the interest rate or to even get the loan. Either way the home owner will lose.

5. When buying a home, you’ll surely want an honest appraisal. You don’t want to be stuffed into a home that you can’t afford and later find out that you paid too much for your home. This is a double slap in the face. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you.

So you see, regardless of whether you’re buying, selling or refinancing, the best policy is always honesty. Many complaints to appraisers are about the home being valued too low. Most appraisers get assignments and think that they have to come into a high value all of the time. You see, this is not true. If the appraiser is completely honest and gives their clients the true value of the home, everyone wins.