subject: The House Next Door Can Affect Your Home's Value [print this page] Professional appraisers sometimes get calls from homeowners who want an appraisal because they are interested in selling a house fast. Quite a lot of sellers these days discover that their circumstances require them to make some quick and rather serious decisions. None of us ever know when we'll find ourselves in a similar situation, meaning we don't know when we might need to sell a house quickly. But when these situations occur it's a good idea to obtain a property valuation from a professional appraiser to consider all your options. Selling a house fast may require a few concessions and it's important to understand your various choices up front.
As an example, let's say that a homeowner finds it necessary to move in a short period of time to begin caring for a relative who is no longer able to live alone. Because this is likely to be a long-term situation, it may not be practical to maintain a vacant house or even manage a tenant. Any seller making the decision to sell right away in order to avoid various difficulties associated with vacant and leased houses is facing serious decisions. The truth is, anybody who has experienced problems common to absentee property owners, whether that includes tenants or not, will confirm that absentee ownership is a pretty frustrating position and it's good to avoid it if possible. Neither tenants, property managers nor others who are helping you out will ever care for your house the way you do and that fact cannot be avoided.
An appraiser comes on the scene when a seller is selling a house fast in order to accomplish another goal that doesn't include that house. He or she usually makes use of comparable properties in the same geographical area that have sold recently, no older than the last six months, and then creates comparisons between the sold properties and the subject property. Similar features and contrasting features will be considered and of course we all know that the exact location of the subject property is of great importance as well. This means the market value of other houses in the neighborhood comes into the calculation as far as the appraised value of any certain house is concerned. Each house is appraised as it exists among other houses, not as though it is lifted out of its actual environment and isolated.
That's why problem properties next door or across the street can affect your property value, too. The fact is that replacement cost is considered, but it is certainly not the primary consideration in an appraiser's calculations. Professional appraisals provide sellers in pressure-filled circumstances with important information for negotiating a quick sale, which is really useful and worth the expense of the appraisal itself. Selling a house fast may require price concessions in some cases, so that's why it's good to know the current market value first.
