Appraisal services for Mechanicsville and Hanover County homeowners

Here are the top seven reasons VA homeowners hire Karen L. Story:

  1. Get a pre-listing appraisal (whether you're using a real estate agent or selling the home on your own)
  2. Challenge Hanover county's assessment of your propertyworth
  3. To lower a monthly mortgage payment by removing PMI
  4. Reinstate your Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
  5. Verify a different appraiser's report
  6. If real estate needs to be divided because of a divorce
  7. Determine the true market value of real estate in question to settle an estate in Hanover county or VA

Need help determining the price of your home in or near Mechanicsville, VA?
Contact Karen L. Story.

At Karen L. Story, we understand the particular needs of a consumer after appraisal services. Our usual business clients are used to the appraisal process and the usual "products" we deliver to them. But as a general consumer,you will receive extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to better understand what we do and how we present the results of our analysis.

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

Since you have an emotional attachment to your own house, it's often very hard to be objective about it. The professional appraisers at Karen L. Story will tell you what you need to know -- not just what you want to hear. We are objective. A professional appraisal is a very important negotiating tool once you have an interested buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your property will attract interested buyers. It gives you something tangible to show the buyer. The appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your property's price, not just how much you think your house is worth. Potential buyers know that you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be more likely to give credibility to a professional appraiser's value estimation than yours.

Need to cancel PMI?

Getting the PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) removed from your mortgage loan is a preferred way to save money for homeowners. Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan amount is down below 80% of the value of your property. In most cases you can apply to your lender to have the PMI removed from your loan. At Karen L. Story, we're seasoned in helping clients just like you get rid of unneeded and unwanted PMI insurance.

Challenge a property tax assessment

Lets say your house is not appreciating as much as other properties nearby -- your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued. This only means you're paying higher taxes than you should be paying. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the quicker you take care of things like this, the better. Getting an appraisal report from Karen L. Story is your #1 weapon when challenging your property tax assessment.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

If your house is in a declining area, your lender may make the decision to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) - even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can this be annoying from a cash flow angle, and bad for your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. Karen L. Story can provide you with efficient appraisal to help you reinstate your home equity line of credit.

Do You Need Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services?

Have you just been given a copy of your appraisal and you'd prefer to have a veteran appraiser double-check it for verity or do you desire a second opinion without the charge and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? Karen L. Story offers field reviews where we go out and check the subject and comps. Or, if you're in a hurry, we can provide you with a desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files.

Need a retrospective review of an appraisal report? We can help with that too. Even though this is usually requested by banks, you may need to utilize this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your home.