Eppraisal has added a new consumer friendly feature: the drive-by appraisal. The new service is available nationwide to provide an estimated market value of your home.
For a reasonable fee, a certified appraiser will prepare an industry standard Fannie Mae Form 2055 Drive-By appraisal you can take to your bank for a home equity loan or refinanced mortgage. A certified appraiser, who has partnered with eppraisal, will do a visual inspection of the outside of your home and run neighborhood comparable sales and listings to determine the estimated market value for your home. You need not be home. The drive by appraisal is a common method used by banks for purposes of a mortgage. The 3-page appraisal report is sent to the homeowner by email within 5-7 business days.
The appraisal order process is straight forward and the price made clear to consumers before they have to provide their personal information. I ran my home address and the cost for an appraisal was $312.
Eppraisal also has a new look. Check their blog for the details.
[Eppraisal provides free AVM valuations based on public record data, just like their competitor Zillow. AVM estimated market values are NOT appraisals. While Zillow does provide an estimated market value range for your home, it calculates a single estimate (zestimate) from that range. Eppraisal provides 3 estimated market values, in a low, middle and high range.]
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Just an FYI, we’ll be offering more than just a Form 2055 in the future. We wanted to make sure we started small and worked any kinks out of the system first though.
Thanks for the write-up!
Nice work guys!
We look forward to new features Erik. Adding the human element to home valuation is a useful option for consumers.
Very useful service from Eppraisal I must say, the UK property valuation industry can definitely take a cue from this.
But can they REALLY take that appraisal to the BANK?!
There’s That Pesky USPAP again! - Here’s what the ASB’s January 2006 Q&A has to say about appraisers that have been engaged directly by the homeowner:
Question: I was contacted by homeowners who want me to perform an appraisal of their home to be used for a loan at a federally regulated financial institution. What are my responsibilities in this potential assignment?
Response: It is an appraiser’s responsibility to disclose to the homeowners that a lender or its agent is required by Title XI of FIRREA to directly engage the services of an appraiser in a federally related transaction. If the homeowners still want to engage you, your disclosure allows you to accept the assignment.
Additional information can be found in Advisory Opinion 25, Clarification of the Client in a Federally Related Transaction and the October 2006 Q&A on Intended Users & Intended Use.
“But can they REALLY take that appraisal to the BANK?”
Most likely, not. But they should be able to if the appraiser was acceptable to the bank.
Very interesting information about eppraisal. In today’s fast pace society, this type for service is defiantly helpful, when it comes down to home equity loan or refinanced mortgage. As long is this type of appraisal is acceptable to the bank, I see only benefits coming out of this type of appraisal service. Hopefully, as the author mentioned, there will be more coming, other then Fannie May Form 2055. Good luck!
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I think the most important step is to be realistic in what you can and cannot do. I’ve seen so many first time home buyers jump into something they cannot afford only because they have big dreams.
Do your homework done first if you are thinking about taking out a loan or mortgage. The time spent looking into your options can save you a good deal of money later on.