Home › Guides › How to Prepare for an Appraisal

How to prepare for an appraisal

Most preparation advice is folklore. Here is what actually changes anything.

What genuinely helps

Provide access to everything. The appraiser has to see every room, the electrical panel, the water heater, the attic access, the garage and the exterior on all four sides. A locked room, a blocked panel or a dog that means the back yard cannot be walked all end up as assumptions in the report, and assumptions are never generous.

Write down your improvements. A simple list: what was done, roughly when, roughly what it cost. Roof, air conditioning, re-piping, electrical panel, impact windows, kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, pool equipment, seawall. The appraiser can see that a kitchen is updated but cannot see that the house was re-piped in 2021 — and that matters.

Find the permits. A permitted addition is worth considerably more than an unpermitted one, and an appraiser who cannot verify a permit may have to treat it as unpermitted. If you have the paperwork, produce it.

Hand over the survey, if you have one — particularly on acreage, waterfront or irregular lots.

In a condominium, get the resale package. Association budget, reserve status, current assessments, and since 2022 the milestone inspection and structural integrity reserve study status. These affect value and the appraiser needs them.

Point out what is not visible. A new septic drainfield. A French drain. An upgraded well. A dock permit. Which side of the property line the seawall sits on. Say it out loud; it does not appear in a photograph.

What makes no difference

Baking cookies. Fresh flowers. Staging. These are showing techniques aimed at buyers. An appraiser is measuring and recording.

A deep clean, beyond legibility. Condition matters; polish does not. Clean up enough that the finishes can be seen — that is the whole reason.

Minor cosmetic touch-ups on the day. Touching up paint the morning of the inspection changes nothing. If a deferred-maintenance item is genuinely fixable and genuinely visible, fix it properly a month earlier or leave it.

How long you have owned it, what you paid, what you owe.

What actively hurts

Telling the appraiser what number you need. This is the big one. Appraiser independence rules prohibit anyone with an interest from attempting to influence a value, and an appraiser who is told a target may have to disclose it in the report. That can make the report unusable to the very lender you were trying to satisfy.

You may provide facts. You may not provide a destination.

Following the appraiser around narrating. Be available for questions. Do not supervise.

Hiding a known defect. It usually gets found, and a report that has to be reissued costs you time you do not have.

For specific situations

Refinance or PMI removal. Have the improvement list ready and let the appraiser see everything. If the interior is materially better than the exterior suggests, that is worth knowing before the scope is set — an exterior-only report cannot credit what it cannot see.

Estate or date of death. The relevant condition is the condition on the valuation date, which may be months or years ago. Photographs from that period, listing history, contractor invoices and inspection reports are the evidence. If heirs have cleared or renovated since, say so — the appraiser has to reason about what was there then.

Divorce. Both parties should understand who is providing access and when. An appraiser turned away by one spouse produces a report with a limiting condition attached, which helps nobody.

Tax appeal. Photograph and document the specific defects you are arguing about, dated.

What we bring

Measuring equipment, a camera, and the county record for your property. If that record is wrong — square footage, bedroom count, a feature you do not have — tell us. Errors in public records are common, they propagate into every automated valuation of your house, and this is a good moment to catch one.

What is a home appraisal? · Appraisal vs home inspection · What happens if the appraisal comes in low

Matt Thoren, State-Certified Residential Appraiser. 561-853-2129 · Residential only.