Blog

HOME APPRAISALS FOR FLOODED PROPERTIES IN HOUSTON Houston is no stranger to the devastation that can be caused by flooding. With the Memorial Day floods of 2015 and the Tax Day floods of 2016 still fresh in many Houstonians memories, we are now faced with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. The massive storm dropped more…

The Impact of the Houston Floods: The flooding in Houston will have serious impacts on the real estate sector for years to come. The floods have already shown their influence on real estate prices and for many, have rendered America’s fourth largest city a less desirable place to live. With the destruction of so many…

The more I review appraisals, the more apparent it becomes that many appraisers in Houston are confusing the terms Market and Neighborhood. This creates misleading results in appraisal reports and can lead to an incorrect conclusion of value. For starters, let’s give some basic definitions for each of these real estate terms:

I’m not a fan of the Internet Explorer browser at ALL. For those of us that prefer to use other web browsers such as Firefox, it is terribly frustrating IE is the only web browser that will properly browse the Houston MLS system. However, I just found a cool tip for using FF with Houston Association of Realtors Site

In a nutshell, FHA is mainly concerned with 3 attributes of a home: Safety, Security and Soundness. Here are a few FHA appraisal tips that will help you ascertain whether or not a home will pass FHA inspection.

If you are planning to sell your home, it might be a wise decision to make a small investment in a professional appraisal. Unless you study real estate trends on a day to day basis like a professional appraiser, it may be difficult for you to get a handle on real estate values in your market area.

There are a lot of myths about flooding in Houston and Harris County. With hurricane season once again on top of us, I thought this would be a good topic to discuss. Myth #1: If I didn’t flood during any previous storms or hurricanes, chances are I won’t ever flood. Most Harris County residents are…

This is a trick I learned a few years ago and was a necessity for performing real estate appraisals in the Fort Bend County area. Many of you may have noticed that when going to FBCAD.org most of the property data sheets do not display the actual lot size or acreage of the site. In…

As real estate appraisers we rely heavily on our data sources to assist us in performing our research. On of these sources are Realtors and their entries in our local MLS systems. I find it interesting that so many MLS on HAR.comlistings are missing not only key information about the home or property, but good…

I was recently sent a request to perform an appraisal on a property in the Shady Acres subdivision of Houston. At first glance, the appraisal assignment seemed easy enough, a simple purchase transaction in a well established area of the Heights. A quick search of previous sales in Shady Acres over the past 6 months…