Attention homeowners in Columbia and Howard County: Get an Appraisal today!![]() The top reasons MD homeowners hire Astute Appraisals, Inc.:
Do you own a house in or near Columbia? Do you need help deciding the price of your real estate?
At Astute Appraisals, Inc., we understand the individual needs of a consumer seeking appraisal services. While our usual business clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get an extra level of customer service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them. Pre-listing Services/For Sale By OwnerIt's very hard to be objective about your house because of your emotional attachment to it. Professional appraisers, like the ones at Astute Appraisals, Inc., are objective. We'll tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. A professional appraisal is a very important negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your house will attract buyers. It's something concrete to show the buyer. An appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your home's price -- not just how much you think your home is worth. Interested buyers know that you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be more likely to give credibility to a seasoned appraiser's value opinion than yours. Need to cancel PMI?A popular money saver for homeowners is to get the PMI eliminated from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". Once your mortgage loan amount is less than 80% of the value of your house, in most cases you can apply to your lender to have the PMI eliminated from your loan, which will make your monthly payments go down. Astute Appraisals, Inc. is experienced in helping customers just like you abolish unwanted and unneeded PMI insurance. Challenge Howard county's assessment of your propertyIf you live in a local area that is going down or is not appreciating as much as other homes close to yours, your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued. That only means you're paying more taxes than you should. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the faster you take care of things like this, the better off you'll be. An appraisal from Astute Appraisals, Inc. is your number one weapon when challenging your property tax assessment. Was your HELOC recently frozen?Even if your specific property has not declined in value, your lender just might make the decision to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your house is near a declining area. Not only can this be inopportune from a cash flow point of view, but it can be harmful to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. Astute Appraisals, Inc. can help you reinstate your home equity line of credit with efficient appraisal. Need Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services?Do you need a seasoned professional to double-check your appraisal for efficiency, or do you desire a second opinion without the added expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? In a field review we'll go out and check the subject and comps in question. If you need it immediately, we'll 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 you with a a retrospective review of any appraisal you may have had done before. While typically requested by banks, you may want to exploit this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your home. |