Appraisal services homeowners

Appraisals for homeowners

See the top seven reasons why PA & NJ homeowners order from Academy Appraisal, Inc.:

  1. Pre-listing appraisals (whether they're selling the home on their own or using a real estate agent)
  2. Challenge a property tax assessment.
  3. Remove PMI to lower your monthly mortgage payment.
  4. To reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
  5. To review another appraiser's report for verification
  6. In the case of a PA divorce, where real estate property needs to be divided.
  7. Determine the true market value of property in question to settle an estate.

Own a house and need help determining the price of it?
Contact Academy Appraisal, Inc.

We at Academy Appraisal, Inc. understand the unique needs of a customer looking for appraisal services. The appraisal process and reporting formats are familiar to our business clients like banks, lawyers, and accountants. But as a general consumer, you'll receive extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to more fully understand what we do and how we document our findings.

Pre-listing Services/For Sale By Owner

Since you have an emotional attachment to your home, it's often very hard to be objective about it. A professional appraiser is objective and will tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. A professional appraisal is very important as a negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic price to sell at so your house will attract interested buyers. It gives you something tangible to show your buyer. The appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your property's value, not just how much your home is worth. Potential buyers know that you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be far more likely to give credibility to a professional appraiser's value assessment than yours.

Appraisals to cancel PMI

A preferred way to cut costs for homeowners is to get the PMI canceled from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan is down below 80% of the value of your house. In most cases you can apply to the lender to have the PMI removed from your loan. At Academy Appraisal, Inc., we're experts in helping people just like you abolish unnecessary PMI insurance.

Challenge property tax assessments

Your local tax assessor may have your house overvalued if your house not appreciating as much as other houses close to yours. This only means you are most likely paying higher taxes than you should be paying. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the quicker you take care of things like this, the better off you'll be. When challenging your property tax assessment, getting an expert appraisal from Academy Appraisal, Inc. is your strongest weapon.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender just may decide to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your property is close to a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can this be inconvenient from a cash flow angle, and unfavorable to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. Academy Appraisal, Inc. can help you reinstate your HELOC.

Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Have you just been given a copy of your appraisal and you would like to have a veteran appraiser double-check it for precision or do you want a second opinion without the expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? An appraiser from Academy Appraisal, Inc. can go out and check the subject and comparables in question in a field review. Or, if you need it in a rush, we can provide desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files.

We can also provide a retrospective review of any appraisal report you may have had done before. While usually requested by banks, you may desire to utilize this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your house.