What Iredell County Buyers Need to Know About Appraisals

We’re here with part one of our series about home appraisals. Today, we’ll go over why appraisals matter to buyers.

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First off, what is an appraisal? An appraisal is an expert estimate of the value of something and, in this case, it’s the value of the home you are buying. Appraisals are required if you are borrowing funds, and optional for cash buyers. Your lender will order the appraisal and you will pay for it up front or at closing. This is a closing cost for the buyer. 

You already set the price of the house when you signed the contract, so why does the bank need a third party appraisal to determine the value of the property? The mortgage company or bank wants to make sure that the purchase price is equal to or higher than the appraised value. 

Why? Lenders use the lower sale price or the current appraisal. They don’t really care what you are willing to pay for a piece of property. If the appraised value is lower than the sales price, you have a problem. However, there are a few solutions. 

First of all, you can ask for a review of the appraisal. You could also go back and renegotiate the sales price with the seller. Finally, you could put down more cash out of pocket to match the appraised value.

Appraisals are required if you are borrowing funds. 

Now, you may not have enough cash on hand to make up the difference. If the appraised value is a lot lower than the sales price, you may be overpaying for the property. 

This is exactly why you need the help of a professional real estate agent to maneuver the ins and outs of your transaction. Stay tuned for part two of our series, where we discuss appraisals from the seller’s perspective. If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would be happy to help you!

How to Get the Most Value Out of a Home Inspection

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Today is part three of our series about home inspections. Inspections are highly valuable to the buyer, and they're important to the entire process of purchasing real estate. I'm going to continue to list off ways that you can prepare for an inspection.

1. Trim the vegetation around the property: The inspector will want to walk around the home, and clearing any overgrown bushes will help the inspector and it will speed up the process.

2. Remove any wood debris: You'll need to remove debris from your deck and your crawlspace.

3. Pay attention to moisture in your crawlspace: This can lead to serious problems in the future, so be sure to thoroughly inspect that area of your home. We're seeing more and more issues arise from this, and more and more buyers are expecting homeowners to have a moisture barrier.

4. Clean mold and mildew in your bathrooms: Mold and mildew are just unsightly, and they can be removed easily. Take the extra time and get rid of it before the inspector sees it.

5. Clean your gutters: Dirty gutters don't leave a very good impression on your inspector, or on potential home buyers.

Hopefully you find these tips to be valuable. Getting ready for a home inspection is important if you want to improve your home before selling. One of the more important things that you can do before an inspection is to simply communicate with your home inspector to find out exactly what's wrong and how you can fix it.

If you have any further questions about this, or about Iredell County real estate in general, please don't hesitate to contact me!

What Closing Costs Do Buyers Have to Pay?

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Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in again. Last time, we talked about closing costs from a seller's perspective. We are back to do the same thing today, but from the buyer's perspective this time.

In terms of closing costs for buyers, they are different based on whether you are paying with cash or with financing. If you are paying cash, your two big costs are a title search and title insurance. You also may have to deal with various home inspections as well, but that's at your discretion. 

When you are borrowing money from a lender, they will have certain expenses you are required to pay. A loan origination fee, an appraisal fee, credit report, flood certification, an origination fee, and any other expenses they require. It depends on both the loan and the lender what your costs will be. They will give you that info with your pre-qualification. 

If you have any questions for us, just give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you!