Why do homeowners need an appraisal?

The top reasons homeowners hire Christopher Adams & Associates:

Pre-listing appraisals (whether you're using a real estate agent or selling the home on your own)
Challenge property tax assessments
Remove PMI to lower a mortgage payment
Reinstate your Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
Verify a different appraiser's report
If real estate needs to be divided because of a divorce
To determine the true market value of real estate to settle an estate

Need help determining the value of your house in or near Canyon Lake, TX?
Contact Christopher Adams & Associates.

We at Christopher Adams & Associates understand the special needs of a homeowner looking for appraisal services. While our typical business clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get extra customer service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them.

For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) / Pre-Listing Services

Since you have an emotional attachment to your own house, it's often very hard to be objective about it. Our professional appraisers at Christopher Adams & Associates are objective. We won't just tell you what you want to hear, we'll tell you what you need to know. In addition to helping you set a realistic price to sell at so your home will attract buyers, a professional appraisal is a very important negotiating tool once you have an interested buyer. It gives you something concrete to show your buyer. An appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your house's value -- not just you saying how much you think your home is worth. Potential buyers assume you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be much more likely to give credibility to an accomplished appraiser's value conclusion than yours.

Need to cancel PMI?

A popular way to save money for homeowners is to get the PMI eliminated from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan is down below 80% of the value of your home. In most cases you can apply to a lender to have the PMI removed from your loan. We are experts in helping people just like you dismiss unwanted PMI insurance.

Challenging property tax assessments

Your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued if your home is not appreciating as much as other properties close to yours. That only means you're going to pay more taxes than you should. The quicker you take care of things like this, the better off you'll be, since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period. An appraisal from Christopher Adams & Associates is your perfect weapon when challenging your property tax assessment.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender might choose to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your home is in or near a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can be be bad for your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also disadvantageous from a cash flow viewpoint. Christopher Adams & Associates can help you reinstate your home equity line of credit with an expert appraisal.

Need Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services?

Have you just been handed a copy of your appraisal and you would like to have a seasoned professional double-check it for preciseness or do you need a second opinion without the added expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? We can go out and check the subject and comps in question in a field review. If you need it immediately, we'll provide you with a desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files.

Do you need a retrospective review of an appraisal? Christopher Adams & Associates can help with that too. While usually requested by banks, you may need to use this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your home.