When Buying A Home, Make Sure Everyone You Work With Knows The Area

When Buying A Home, Make Sure Everyone You Work With Knows The Area

If you live in a big city, chances are, home prices can vary quite a bit depending on the neighbourhood. If you’re looking to buy a home, you want to make sure everyone you work with — from your agent to your appraiser — is highly familiar with the area you want to live in.

Photo by Edwin & Kelly Tofslie.

It probably seems fairly obvious to choose a real estate agent who’s familiar with the area, but other experts, like inspectors and appraisers, are important, too. GOBankingRates explains:

…it’s critical that your appraiser is familiar with your particular area. If he’s not, he might rely strictly on cold, sometimes old, data that doesn’t reflect all that your home has going for it. “There is an off-market narrative that appraisals are more or less oblivious to,” said Merrill. Your goal is to make sure they aren’t.

Especially if you’re in an area that’s rapidly growing, the appraiser may not be familiar with the neighbourhood and offer a much lower appraisal. If you’re trying to get a loan for a house, this can be a problem, since the mortgage company typically lends money according to the appraisal.

Of course, it’s also a problem if you’re trying to sell or refinance your home. Overall, it helps to work with people who are knowledgeable about the trends and prices in your area. They can offer more accurate assessments, clue you in on certain rules of the area and tell you what kind of maintenance issues to look out for. For more detail, head to the full post at the link below.

7 Ways Homeowners Can Dispute an Absurdly Low Appraisal [GOBankingRates]


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