amyinva Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 We are refinancing, and the appraisal is late this afternoon. My house is neat and reasonably clean, but not showcase perfect. Does it really affect appraisal value when the house is picture perfect as opposed to just nice? We are cleaning now, but I'm grumpy about it bc this is the second appraisal this month, and last time it was spotless and still it seemed that the appraisal was based solely on comps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 It doesn't matter if your house is picture perfect. An appraiser is looking at age, square-footage, general upkeep and comps . . . with an emphasis on the comps. If your house is reasonably clean then you will be just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 It doesn't matter if your house is picture perfect. An appraiser is looking at age, square-footage, general upkeep and comps . . . with an emphasis on the comps. If your house is reasonably clean then you will be just fine. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I always make it as spotless as possible, but I don't know if that matters. I simply can't bear the thought of someone walking through my house if it is messy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 It doesn't matter if your house is picture perfect. An appraiser is looking at age, square-footage, general upkeep and comps . . . with an emphasis on the comps. If your house is reasonably clean then you will be just fine. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milovany Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I wouldn't do anything special for the appraisal. They don't care about mess, they're looking at what someone else mentioned above. I'll stress over cleaning for my mom or friends or priest, but I ainta gonna do it for an appraiser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 It really doesn't matter for appraisals. Potential buyers, yes. Appraisals, no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tohru Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 It doesn't impact it very much, however an appraiser will take into consideration your cleanliness as a judgment on if if you would be the type of person that does regular home maintenance. Once we were considering a house and the appraiser appraised it lower than comps because there were leaves in the gutter. His position was that if the homeowners didn't take the time to clean their gutters, they probably weren't the type of people that did other maintenance things either, thus reducing the property value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I've always cleaned and straightened mine as much as possible. It shouldn't matter, but appraisals are somewhat subjective. If a clean, orderly house makes them look at my house more favorably, it can only help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in OH Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I know I'm probably too late for the original poster, but I wanted to add that new appraisal guidelines have changed the way appraisals are conducted. The end result might be the same--not dependent on cleanliness, but oy! The embarrassment! We refinanced our home 2 years ago under the basic appraisal process others have described. We refinanaced again a month ago, and I was shocked at the level of detail of the appraisal--with pictures, no less! The appraiser was inspecting minutia such as the grout around the tub and photographing a faucet with the water running. Flushing toilets, inspecting and photographing the basement, asking many questions about work done on the house. I thought I had an unusually picky appraiser, but the closing agent said this practice has become pretty common since the appraisal guidelines have recently changed. Apparently the forclosure crisis has caused these tightened requirements. Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyinva Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 All done. He was very thorough, looked behind shower curtains, in closets, took pics, etc. It was clean, in spite of my bad attitude. :) I doubt it will help, though. The foreclosures & short sales in our area are going to crush us. Thanks for the input, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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