Austin Property Insurance Appraisers

Market value or fair market value is the most likely price that a house will sell for in a competitive and free market under all conditions essential to a fair sale, the buyer and home seller, each acting in their own interest, knowledgeably and presuming the sales price is not affected by unreasonable factors.

For almost all appraisal jobs an appraiser will be required to confirm the measurements of the structures on the property. If your house is one-story then an appraiser should be able to finish all his/her measurements from the perimeter per American National Standards Institute directions for living area calculation. Property appraisers are permitted to round up to the nearest foot per accepted standards, though this is typically rare. If you hold any docs that accurately delineates the living area then I recommend having that for the appraiser’s analyze .

A prevailing misconception is that an appraised value is based on size and that the market value can be figured by sq. ft. multiplied by price per sqft. That is inaccurate. Actually, it’s the other way around; price per sq. ft. is calculated by the value suggested by the appraiser. An often occurring scenario where price per sq. ft. would not work would be smaller homes that have extensive renovations or outdoor amenities such as workshops.

Your appraiser will evaluate recently sold and currently listed houses in your neighborhood as part of the sales comparison approach. Typically a sales comparison grid is used and adjustments are made to each of the comparable homes for notable variances between the comps and the Subject property for such items as location, gross living or building area, acreage, condition/effective age, market circumstances, quality of construction and noteworthy amenities. The intent of the market approach is to use comparable houses, adjusted against the subject for differences, to determine a likely price for the Subject property.