Boost your home’s value with a home appraisal

Walk away with a higher price point for your home

Wondering what the current value of your home is? If you’re looking to refinance, sell or rent out your house there are many advantages to calling a home appraiser to get the up-to-date market value. The process will cost you several hundred dollars (prices seem to top out at $500), but call around and find the right price for you.

The appraiser will tour your home, examining what’s good, what’s broken and what’s changed since you bought the property. The result: hopefully a higher value that could net you a greater selling price. If the house you’re selling is not your principal residence and you’ve done renovations, a home appraisal can help reduce the capital gains tax you’ll pay when you sell.

A home appraisal can also highlight some of your home's ‘red flags’ - factors that reduce the current market price of your home. There may be easy repairs you can do to add value.

Home appraiser on their way? Here are a few things you can do to make sure they like what they see:

List your upgrades - If you’ve done renovations, provide an itemized list and include the prices you paid. This ensures the home appraiser will see the extra investment you’ve put into your home.

Tidy up - Make sure your home looks its best. Clean carpets, floors, walls and baseboards can go a long way.

Don’t forget outdoors too - Keep your lawn and backyard neat and tidy to add value. Mow the lawn, clean up any debris and plant some flowers to make a good impression. In the winter, clear snow from all paths.

Do your research - Your home appraiser should know how much other homes in your neighbourhood are selling for, but it doesn’t hurt to do the same. Highlight other comps in the area to make sure the appraiser knows the market.

Repair - Have small repairs to do? Do them before the home appraiser shows up. Issues like cracks in walls or leaky faucets could decrease the value of your home but may be easy to fix ahead of time.

Upgrade - Have small repairs to do? Do them before the home appraiser shows up. Issues like cracks in walls or leaky faucets could decrease the value of your home but may be easy to fix ahead of time.

So your home is clean, repairs are done and you’ve done your market research, now all you need to do is let the appraiser do their job and be on hand to answer any questions they have. Simply providing a list of renovations or comps in the area can be the best way to communicate these during the inspection. Save questions and concerns for after they’ve finished their walkthrough.

Have more questions? Contact a MA broker today.