Can anyone recommend a real estate appraiser in Illinois?
I need suggestions because friends and neighbors of our have had appraisals from Streetlinks that were WAY off. A friend who has a 4 BR 3 bath house got an appraisal from Streetlinks based upon the recent sale price of houses with 3 bedrooms a one bath with property taxes ½ his in much worse neighborhoods. Needless to say this affected his ability to refinance.
We are looking to refinance and I really would like to avoid and hassles I can.
So does anyone know an appraised in Illinois who gives accurate estimates?
Calling productive (ie the most successful) high volume real estate agents with 10 years or more experience in the jurisdiction of interest will probably get the most useful recommendation re appraisers.
Zoid, I am not in Illinois, so I can’t help. But you do realize, I hope, that financing institutions won’t accept your appraisal or even look at it. They assume bias from the start, and will order their own (which you will probably have to pay for, so that isn’t fair, either).
And a new federal law requires banks to get an appraiser from a “pool” instead of calling up their favorite local dude. This is intended to eliminate bias, but it actually results in appraisals by those who don’t know the local market, which increases the uncertainty. It’s a bad idea, IMHO.
So your own appraiser can be informative to you, but it probably won’t help you get that loan.
I know someone in Illinois but not sure where you live and if he can get to your area. I sent you a PM with the info.
However, as mentioned, not really sure if this will help as you most certainly will need to get another from your lending institution. Otherwise, there would indeed be lots of “friends” bumping up values. But the offer stands - email me back and I could give my friend a call to see if he can get to your area and has time. I know he is really busy now - so it sounds like you are not the only one in Illinois doing this!