A Few Tips for Swifter Turn Times

Appraising is a constantly changing profession. Often, it seems, appraisers are asked to supply additional information or have steps added to their data gathering. All of this is to ensure their client receives the best information available. To stay current with the always changing requirements, Metropolitan Real Estate Appraisal Service, Inc. is constantly researching additional tools and improving processes in order to increase efficiency so we can do more work for our clients. At Metropolitan Real Estate Appraisal Service, Inc. we know that time is important to everybody, so we've listed some items you can do to speed up the process when you order an appraisal from Metropolitan Real Estate Appraisal Service, Inc..

Order your appraisals on the Internet.: With online ordering, you automatically receive e-mail notifications that the order was received, and fast, secure .PDF format report delivery. This tip alone will save the most time! We don't have to re-key information from a fax, and nor will you wonder whether we got the order.
Are you providing complete and accurate information about the subject property?: There's nothing like being one number off on the street address to unnecessarily slow down an appraisal assignment. And if you have a tax parcel number, plat map number, subdivision name or anything else that uniquely identifies the property, please pass it along. We even welcome lists of recent sales from the area — though be advised that professional appraisers must always do their own due diligence on comparable sales, and ours may differ from yours.
Are you telling us up front any characteristics of the property that might make it distinct?: Cookie-cutter houses are relatively easy to appraise. What takes time is analyzing how characteristics unique to a property add to or detract from what otherwise would be a property's market value. At the time you order your report, be sure to let us know if there are unique elements of the home or surrounding area -- for example, it's had a recent addition constructed, it's subject to zoning restrictions, it's susceptible to flooding. While these are things that we'd find out on our own, knowing them early on will likely make your report arrive more quickly.
What are you doing to make the occupants of the home aware of what to expect?: One of the most time consuming tasks of the appraisal process is confirming an appointment with the occupants of the home. It's understandable for a homeowner to be apprehensive with an unknown person inspecting every square foot of their home, taking pictures, and making abundant notes. A common belief is that they ought to make the place spotless before the inspection, believing that will increase the value. So they choose to not schedule the appraisal inspection until they have cleaned.

Hearing from you -- a person they are working with on their loan -- a little information about the appraisal process, who we are, and especially that dusting and polishing won't affect their home's value one little bit, and likely decrease the appraisal inspection time. I encourage you to point them to our website, where we have several pages of helpful information for homeowners and others describing the appraisal process. Have them call us if they want to become familiar with our staff and services. And tell them it benefits them to set the appointment soon!
Use our website to keep tabs on your report's status.: Phone and fax tag are a thing of the past with up-to-the-minute status updates available online, anytime, 24/7. As we complete each important milestone in an assignment, that information can be viewed instantly online. There's no faster or easier way to keep track of the status of your report.