★ Home Listings Arizona ★
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The Art of Appraising a home's value is a comprehensive process done by licensed, certified members of the Real Estate and Financial communities.  Your real estate agent may provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis, which is a good estimate of a property's current worth on the home market, however an Appraisal is far more indicative of what financial lenders will accept as the home's worth to them as collateral for financing a new mortgage.  This appraisal is ultimately a major factor in whether or not many home sales become finalized.  For this reason, a home buyer's lending institution will usually select an independent appraisal firm to value the target property.  Sometimes, when you are the seller of a home, it is a good idea for you to hire an appraisal firm to come value the home before placing it on the market.  This gives you a very good idea of what price range mortgage companies will be likely to accept as financeable.  This could save you much time, if time is of the essence, in your transaction because you can avoid accepting "Overbid" offers on your house that require financing of the buyer.  His/her offer could likely fall through, as the financing can not be put in place.  Of course if they could pay cash..(smile)...but not many can. Beware of buyer/investors who use this tactic to force a seller to come down in price... for example: They outbid all others on the home you are selling, and you agree to their price since it is the highest.  But when the appraisal comes in at less than the offer, but at realistic market value, the buyer says he no longer wants the house unless you reduce the selling price (usually his contractual right!).  Since you've already rejected all the other offers, and they are long gone, you might be in a time crunch now and feel it is necessary to accept the buyers reduced offer, which may now be less than some of the other offers you previously rejected.  This tactic is something experienced REALTORs are vigilant of, and another great reason to hire one.