Attention homeowners in Petaluma and Sonoma County: Need an appraisal?

The top reasons CA homeowners order from Highlands Appraisal:

  1. Pre-listing appraisals (whether you're using a real estate agent or selling the home on your own)
  2. Challenge property tax assessments
  3. To lower their mortgage payments by removing PMI
  4. To reinstate your Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
  5. To review a different appraiser's report for verification
  6. If real estate property needs to be divided because of a divorce
  7. To determine the true market value of real estate in question to settle an estate in Sonoma County or the state of CA

Own a home in or near Petaluma, CA and need help determining the value of it?
Contact Highlands Appraisal.

We at Highlands Appraisal understand the special needs of a customer in need of appraisal services. While our typical clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get extra service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them.

For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) / Pre-Listing Services

Since you have an emotional attachment to your house, it's often very hard to be objective about it. A professional appraiser is objective and will tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. In addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your home will attract buyers, a professional appraisal is a very important negotiating tool once you have an attainable buyer. It's something concrete to show your buyer. It's an independent third party's opinion of your house's value, and not just you saying how much your home is worth. Interested buyers know you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be far more likely to give credibility to a qualified appraiser's value estimation than yours.

PMI Removal Appraisals

A preferred way to cut expenses for homeowners is to get the PMI eliminated from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan is less than 80% of the value of your property. In most cases you can apply to the lender to have the PMI canceled from your loan. We're qualified in helping folks just like you rid themselves of undesirable PMI insurance.

Challenging a property tax assessment

Your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued if you live in a region that is going down or not appreciating as much as other homes close to yours. That only means you're most likely paying more taxes than you should. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the faster you take care of a matter like this, the better off you'll be. When challenging your property tax assessment, getting a professional appraisal from Highlands Appraisal is your perfect weapon.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

Even if your specific property has not declined in value, your lender just may choose to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your house is close to a declining area. This can this be difficult and inconvenient from a cash flow viewpoint, and bad for your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. Highlands Appraisal can help you reinstate your home equity line of credit with a professional appraisal.

Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Do you need a seasoned expert to double-check your appraisal for precision, or do you need a second opinion without the added expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? Highlands Appraisal offers field reviews where we go out and check the subject and comparables in question. If you're in a hurry, 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.

We can also provide a retrospective review of any appraisal report you may have had done before. While typically requested by banks, you may need to take advantage of this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your house.