Getting a home appraisal before you sell can help you with your pricing strategy, which is one of the most important factors in getting your home sold for top dollar in Northern Virginia. This is the third article in a blog series on this topic. So far, we’ve covered Part 1 and Part 2.

Getting a Home Appraisal Before Selling – What Are the Appraisal Report’s Limitations?

One important caveat to all of this is that getting a home appraisal on your own will always be different from a bank ordered appraisal that is ordered by a buyer’s bank after they are under contract to purchase a home. With a bank ordered appraisal that is conducted in conjunction with a purchase contract, the burden of proof is on the appraiser to prove why the property isn’t worth the sales price, since a ready and willing buyer paid that price for the property. In other words, the contract price might be higher than what the appraiser would have estimated the value to be, but if the appraiser can’t find any sales data to clearly show that the property is worth less, than it’s their job to validate the sales price.

When independently getting a home appraisal, the appraiser doesn’t have a purchase contract in front of them to act as a benchmark or a starting point. They might be more or less generous with their assessment of value of your property, which is why it’s important to take the appraised value with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, the market will have the last say on how much the property is worth, and you should know in the first few weeks how much a buyer is willing to pay for the property. The number of offers you receive and the offer amounts are always the best litmus test for market value.

Call me at 703-462-0700 or email me at DarrenRobertsonHomes@gmail.com to learn more about how I help my seller clients sell their homes for top dollar in the Northern Virginia market! Also, be sure to ask me about getting a home appraisal for free before you sell your property.

* Certain restrictions apply. Contact me to learn the full details of this program.