Exterior Only And Desktop Appraisals
Because of current COVID-19 concerns, many prudent appraisers, and property owners are not completing appraisals with a traditional, interior walk through. In many cases, state and local “shelter in place” orders don’t permit this type of appraisal. In response to these restrictions, appraisals completed with an exterior only viewing of the home, and even appraisals with no physical visit to the property (often called “desktop appraisals”), are emerging as viable alternatives. In this blog post, I will examine the strengths and weaknesses of these appraisal products.
One might wonder how an appraiser can offer an opinion of a home’s value without actually seeing the house. The fact is, there are many ways to “see” a house without ever visiting the property.
Public tax records offer many useful pieces of information about the home such as its square footage, room count, HVAC system, access to public utilities, year of construction, basement finish, and more. In Montgomery County, PA, the county assessor’s office even includes permits for home improvement projects. The weakness of this data source, as any appraiser will testify, is that sometimes data contained in public tax records is in error.
Another source of property information is online mapping and aerial imagery sites, such as Google Maps. These websites give the appraiser an exterior view any home within a major metropolitan area, like Philadelphia, PA. The view includes the home and its surroundings, and can be seen from various angles and zoom levels. The shortcoming of aerial imagery is that it isn’t in real time. It can be anywhere from months to years behind, and may not depict what is actually there today.
A third source of information available to the appraiser is the property owner themselves. Who knows the property better than the homeowner? The owner can often provide the appraiser with interior photos, floor plans, blueprints, contracts for remodeling projects, and a host of other valuable insights on the house. The property owner can even take the appraiser on virtual tour of the house using apps like Facetime. The drawback to homeowner provided information is that it is unfiltered of personal bias one may have towards their own home. In the case of appraisals completed to secure a mortgage, fraud becomes a concern.
While the lack of a full interior viewing will diminish the reliability of an appraisal, exterior only, and desktop appraisals do offer a good alternative during a time that a full interior viewing of a home is not possible They can be useful for many purposes.
