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Pre-Foreclosure and Short Sale Appraisals

This work has two audiences who need the same report for opposite reasons, and we serve both.

For servicers, lenders and asset managers

Before a loss-mitigation decision, someone has to know what the security is worth. Whether a short sale offer should be accepted, whether a modification makes more sense than foreclosure, what an REO disposition would realistically net — each of those turns on a value opinion that will be reviewed later by someone testing whether the decision was reasonable.

We produce full appraisals rather than broker price opinions. A BPO is quicker and cheaper; an appraisal is what holds up when a file is audited, litigated, or examined in a deficiency proceeding. Which one you need depends on what the number will be asked to do.

Exterior-only scope is common here, for the obvious reason that a borrower in default may not grant access. 6,474 of our assignments have been exterior-only single-family reports, and we are explicit in every one about what could and could not be observed.

For homeowners in default

If you are trying to negotiate a short sale, your lender's valuation is the number you are arguing against, and you are usually arguing blind. An independent appraisal gives you something concrete to put in front of them — particularly where the property has deferred maintenance, a structural issue, or a condition problem that a drive-by valuation cannot see and that materially reduces what it will actually fetch.

We should be honest that this does not always help. If the lender's number is defensible, ours will land near it, and you will have paid to learn that. We would rather say so first.

What we will not do

We will not produce a low number to help a short sale clear, and we will not produce a high one to support a modification. Both are mortgage fraud, and both are obvious to the reviewer who looks.

Our experience

Appraising South Florida since 1992, 34,000+ appraisals in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Broward counties, including 391 field reviews of other appraisers' work. Residential only.

How the assignment runs

For servicers: assignment in, scope confirmed (interior where access exists, exterior-only where it does not), inspection, and a report built for the file that a reviewer, auditor or judge may one day read. We flag condition issues visible from the scope we had and state the limits of what we saw. For owners: engagement directly with you, interior access at your convenience, and a report documenting exactly the condition problems the lender's number missed — with photographs, because in this work the photographs argue better than the prose.

The honest limits

An appraisal is evidence, not magic. If the servicer's valuation is defensible, ours lands near it and the negotiation does not move — we tell owners that up front, and it is in writing on this page so nobody hears it for the first time after paying. Where the property genuinely has unseen problems, the appraisal is often decisive, because a loss-mitigation file cannot ignore documented condition. Either way you learn the truth early, which in a default timeline is worth money.

Call 561-853-2129 or use the contact form.

Questions we hear about this work

Is an appraisal or a BPO better for a short sale decision?

A BPO is cheaper and faster; an appraisal is what survives audit, litigation and deficiency proceedings. Which you need depends on what the number must later withstand.

Can a homeowner order their own appraisal during default?

Yes, and it is sometimes the only leverage available — particularly where the property's condition is worse than the servicer's drive-by valuation can see.

Do you do exterior-only valuations for servicers?

Routinely — 6,474 exterior-only reports sit in our file — and every one states plainly what could and could not be observed.

How current does a pre-foreclosure valuation need to be?

Fresh. Loss-mitigation decisions get reviewed against the market at decision time; a stale value invites exactly the second-guessing it was meant to prevent.