Attention homeowners in Amherst and Erie County: Need an appraisal?

Here are the top seven reasons why NY homeowners order from Susan Fretz Appraisals:

  1. To get a pre-listing appraisal (whether they're selling the home themselves or using an agent)
  2. Challenge a property tax assessment
  3. To lower your monthly mortgage payment by removing PMI
  4. To reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
  5. Verify a different appraiser's report
  6. In the case of a NY divorce, when real estate property needs to be divided
  7. Determine the true market value of property in question to settle an estate in Erie county or NY

Need help determining the price of your house in or near Amherst, NY?
Contact Susan Fretz Appraisals.

At Susan Fretz Appraisals, we understand the unique needs of a homeowner after appraisal services. Our business practices and reporting formats are relatively routine to our business clients like banks, lawyers, and CPAs. As our non-traditionalclient, you'll receive extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to understand what we do and how we document our findings.

Pre-listing Services/For Sale By Owner

Since you have an emotional attachment to your house, it's often very hard to be objective about it. Professional appraisers, like the ones at Susan Fretz Appraisals, will be objective. We'll tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. A professional appraisal is very valuable as a negotiating tool once you have an attainable buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your house will attract buyers. The appraisal is something tangible to show the buyer. It's an independent third party's opinion of your property's value, and not just you saying how much your house is worth. Potential buyers know that you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be more likely to give credibility to an accomplished appraiser's value estimation than yours.

Appraisals to cancel PMI

PMI stands for Private Mortgage Insurance. A fashionable money saver for homeowners is to get the PMI removed from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan amount is less than 80% of the value of your home. In most cases you can apply to your lender to have the PMI removed from your loan. We're experts in helping clients just like you remove unneeded and unwanted PMI insurance.

Challenging Erie county's assessment of your property

Lets say your home is not appreciating as much as other homes close to yours -- your local tax assessor may have your house overvalued. This only means you are going to pay higher taxes than you should be paying. The earlier you take care of things like this, the better off you'll be, since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period. An appraisal report from Susan Fretz Appraisals is your best weapon when challenging your property tax assessment.

HELOC recently frozen?

If your home is close to a declining area, your lender may decide to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) - even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can be be negative on your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also annoying from a cash flow point of view. Susan Fretz Appraisals can provide you with an expert appraisal that will help you reinstate your HELOC.

Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Have you just received a copy of your appraisal and you would like to have a seasoned appraiser double-check it for preciseness or do you need a second opinion without the cost and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? Susan Fretz Appraisals offers field reviews where we go out and check the subject and comparables. If you need it ASAP, we'll 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? We can We can assist you Even though this is usually requested by banks, you may want to exercise this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your property.