Condo Appraisals

If you are in the process of purchasing a new home or condo, you may be considering hiring the services of a real estate appraiser or a condo appraiser . When considering this you may be thinking “is this just an added cost or service that I can do without?” The truth is, a condo or real estate appraisal is well-worth the time and money spent. Certified Appraisers have extensive knowledge and experience that have the potential to you save thousands of dollars down the road. A Condo appraisal or home inspection is often required when a buyer is using a third party such as a bank or private lender to finance their purchase of a new home or condo. Real Estate Appraisals help you assess the value and potential issues when purchasing a new home and are always a good idea, especially for first time home buying. This resource is an excellent source of information for anyone interested or curious about the home appraisal process.

If this is your first time home buying can be nerve-racking and it is strongy recommended that you hire or at least speak with a real estate appraiser. Just because you are a first time home buyer doesn’t mean that you are naive, but there are things that the first time home buyer just wouldn’t think to look for.

Even if you have extraordinary attention to detail, the first time home buyer may be looking more for cosmetic defects in a new home or condo, whereas a real estate appraiser can look deeper. They can tell you whether or not all aspects of the property were built to code and have extensive knowledge of the sounds and function of the appliances in the new home.

Real Estate Appraisers help home buyers in assessing the value of their potential new home. It is important to have a professional thoroughly inspect the property BEFORE going to settlement. Real Estate Appraisers have the experience to know what to look for and what conditions are deemed acceptable. A real estate appraiser will also help you create your punchlist, which is very important to do before going to settlement.

A real estate appraiser will do an extensive survey of everything inside and on the outside of the property. Depending on the square footage of your new home or condo, a real estate appraisal can take anywhere between one and four hours. A real estate appraiser will generally begin by starting all the appliances and running them during the course of their inspeciton. They do this so that they can see how the appliances perform at initial startup and over the duration of time. The oven, gas, and HVAC unit are all of great concern to a home inspector as these are often where the majority of problems arise.

Checking and testing the electricity and electric box is another primary concern of a real estate appraiser and is one of the most important aspects of the appraisal. They will check for faulty wiring in the new home, seeing how the electrical box is set up and how the light switches are functioning.

The settlement punchlist is a very important document. The punchlist is a list of deficiencies that the builder or real estate developer is obligated to fix after you have gone to settlement on the new home. It is very important to thoroughly inspect the new property and create this list BEFORE going to settlement. As issues come up after you have gone to settlement, the real estate developer or builder will reference the settlement punchlist to see if the item that you would like to have fixed is on there or not.

If you notice a deficiency after you have gone to settlement, unless the item is clearly stated on the punchlist, the developer will general claim that they are not responsible and in most cases will insist that you caused the defeciency.

A huge benefit of having a real estate appraiser inspect your new home prior to settlement, is that they know what to look for and can point out what items should go on your punchlist that you normally would miss.

First time home buying can be an intimidating process. The purchase of a new home is one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive commitments the average person will make in their entire life. Because of how important this decision is you do not want to overlook any small detail, especially the fine print and sometime difficult to understand legal speak that you will find in most real estate developer and new home builder’s purchase agreements.

It is highly recommended that you have a real estate lawyer look over the purchase agreement with you before signing it. There are many items that appear on a purchase agreement that may not seem relevant at the time to a first time home buyer or anyone who is not familiar with real estate law.

In many instances, especially in big cities, home buyers will purchase a condo or property before it is even built. When this is the case, it is important to look for information in the real estate purchase agreement regarding when the developer or home builder promises to be done with construction and deliver the new home. In many cases the date that the sales representative tells you they expect to be done with construction, is often pushed back. This can be a real problem when it comes to planning where you will live and current lease agreement until you have a solid date of when you can move into your new home.

Once construction is complete, however, the developer will want you to move in and settle as soon as possible because this allows them to discontinue carrying the costs of maintaing your new home. If you are unable to settle on the settlement date they assign to you, they will typically charge you between $200-$500 PER DAY until you proceed to settlement. When reviewing your real estate purchase agreement for your new home, be sure that look for and carefully read over any and all information regarding the settlement process.

Real Estate Lawyers are good friends to have. For the most part, seeking the counsel of a real estate lawyer is a last resort, but sometimes it is necessary. Real Estate law is complicated and constantly developing area of expertise and a real estate lawyer is your best asset in resolving issues that are not being handled as you would expect from the real estate developer or home builder from whom you purchased your home.

If punchlist items are taking too long to get corrected post-settlement, a real estate lawyer can really give the developer the push that is needed to get your issue resolved, especially is the issue falls into a “gray-area” where the issue or course of action is not specified in the purchase agreement.

Hiring a the sercives or a condo or real estate appraiser can help you avoid some messy legal battles and the need to hire a real estate lawyer, by finding the issues before you settle on your new home.

Are you interested in becoming a real estate appraiser? Real estate appraisers get to work on their own schedule, meet and help lots of new people, make their own hours, get paid great, and are in demand. Depending upon where you live, the process for becoming a real estate appraiser varies. However, there are lots of ways to become a real estate appraiser. You get your real estate appraiser license by locally taking real estate appraiser courses.

There are also some legitimate online real estate appraisal courses. You can get your license in as short as a few months, and the skills and experience that you gain will be useful to you for the rest of your life. To become a real estate appraiser you will be mentored and taught all about code, architecture, plumbing, electricity, HVAC and more. You will be able to identify common issues found in new home development and and even learn how to repair them.