If you would like a source for interesting real estate related information, YOU have come to the right place! Timely and incisive Pittsburgh Appraisal Blog.
March 25, 2017 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Performing a recent Pittsburgh appraisal, I thought a post on realtor.com was interesting. There was a recent realtor.com article 6 Costly Mistakes First-Time House Flippers Make. This article was interesting due to many of the situations I have seen considering we do work for many flippers. One in particularly that was NOT in the article which should have been and I will go over that later with a personal story.
I will include a link to the realtor.com article below. However, in the mean time, I will just briefly cover the 6 included and the 7th NOT included.
January 2, 2016 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Ever wonder how an appraiser knows how long your home will take to sell? Being an expert in your market makes us at Bostedo Appraisal Services the authority — the guys and gals everyone goes to when they have a complex question about real estate.
Well, allow me to introduce you to Absorption Rate. Before your mind wanders off into numbness, let me also tell you that this is one of the most practical metrics or measurements you can learn for your market or for you as a seller. Better than that, it will only take you a few minutes to learn it. It should be pointed out, although the manufacturing segment of the economy has been using this metric for decades, real estate, for the most part still doesn’t.
OK, so what is Absorption Rate? Simply put, (more…)
December 8, 2015 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Over the years Pittsburgh housing trends have been fairly steady. In fact, it has been sort of a running gag when someone asks how much their home has appreciated the ‘off the cuff’ answer was always about 3% per year. It has been like this for decades. In fact, this phenomenon was one reason that Pittsburgh survived the housing bubble due to Pittsburgh housing trends not being in a bubble.
This post and the graphic to the left depicts only (more…)
October 27, 2015 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Beware! Upside Down Builders
I’m sure many of us have seen them and frankly, probably never gave it a second thought, the homes that were built upside down.
Well, upside down I guess is only a matter of opinion. You can call them just about anything, even contemporary will work. However, there is one thing you can’t get away from, why is there only 1 bedroom on the 1st floor and all the rest of the bedrooms are downstairs? (more…)
October 6, 2015 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
D-day is upon us. TRID-day that is.
Oct. 3 marks the effective date of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Know Before You Owe mortgage disclosure rule, also called the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures rule or TRID.
Every residential real estate transaction now requires new loan documentation consisting of (more…)
September 15, 2015 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
As a Pittsburgh appraiser who services a 7 county region, when doing a Pittsburgh appraisal you run into many different things. Pittsburgh has such a rich coal mining history, in fact, so does all of southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Over the years from the time when I was small, I was told about a bridge that spanned two hilltops where I use to live, and men use to push coal carts across. I was also told there (more…)
September 1, 2015 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Over the past number of years, I had the opportunity to appraise many 2-4 family properties in the Pittsburgh and surrounding areas for pre-listing, divorce, estate and other reasons. The reasons behind the appraisals are not the story; the story is why, and how, there was such a reversal of fortunes so to speak in the overall value of both single family residential, and multi-family (2-4 unit) properties. At this spot in the blog, I must point out that this is not only an issue in Pittsburgh, but the entire southwestern Pennsylvania region. (more…)
June 29, 2015 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Recently a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania homeowner asked me to do a pre listing appraisal for them because a friend who is involved in Real Estate said they may have over improved their home, and they should see where they stand by getting an appraisal.
The property was a townhome style dwelling in condominium ownership. I arrived at the home and may I say, the property was beautiful, everything in it brand new and gorgeous. I will not go into great detail about the property because it will be coming onto the market and the actual renovations completed are a mute point.
April 27, 2015 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Much has changed in the Real Estate Industry since the financial crisis of 2008 & 2009. In this blog however, we will only discuss what has transpired with regard to how Banks want an appraisal prepared. This blog post will only go into some brief techniques that the Banks require within appraisal reports and I will stay away from any reasoning as to why. However, it is partly because of these requirements that values in many areas are not rising as quickly as some may want or think they should.
I will start by saying that, as an appraiser, (more…)
March 8, 2015 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Ever wonder how an appraiser knows how long your home will take to sell? Being an expert in your market makes us at Bostedo Appraisal Services the authority — the guys and gals everyone goes to when they have a complex question about real estate.
Well, allow me to introduce you to Absorption Rate. Before your mind wanders off into numbness, let me also tell you that this is one of the most practical metrics or measurements you can learn (more…)
December 29, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
First, what is “CU”? CU is the acronym for Fannie Mae’s new in-house tool for examining credit risk called ‘Collateral Underwriter’. Fannie Mae is rolling it out to Lenders and, indirectly, to their AMC partners in January 2015. Their objective is to distribute CU to support more proactive management of appraisal quality by empowering lenders to address potential appraisal issues prior to loan delivery.
Starting January 26, 2015, all lenders and lender agents will have full access to the program which includes the CU risk score along with the risk flags (more…)
December 2, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
If you live in, or own a Split Level, or Split Entry/Bi-level style dwelling within Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Somerset, Washington or Westmoreland Counties, be forewarned. Your property may be assessed at a higher value than the property should be due to a lack of uniformity. The lack of uniformity is what created the court ordered re-assessment process in Allegheny County and (more…)
November 6, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
If you are like most and haven’t had an appraisal done on your home recently, one of the first things that may come to your mind is, “What do I need to do to get ready for the appraiser?” Here are some things you may want to consider prior to the appraiser coming to your home. (more…)
November 5, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Well, the short answer is no. However, we will go into the subject in more detail and explain with the long answer.
If you haven’t worked with an appraiser before or it’s been a long time much has changed. You may not realize that all appraisers are NOT the same and can be as different as night and day depending on their experience, education, and familiarity with your market area.This was exasperated in the early 90’s with the advent of Appraisal Certification. (more…)
November 5, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
We all know them. The guys with pounds of silicon hanging from their belts. Every new gadget that has hit the market in the past 10 years has done time around their waist. Call them geeks. Call them nerds. Call them what you will, but by all means, give them your appraisal business. Why? I’m glad you asked. (more…)
October 21, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
One of the best ways to increase the market value of a home is to make structural improvements or add features such as a deck or an extra room. I do want to emphasize if your plan is to enlarge your home, there are some things you may want to consider in your planning. Make sure to read the (more…)
September 12, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Zillow vs Certified Appraisal. Let us first start out by explaining what is Zillow? Zillow is what is known as an AVM an Automated Valuation Module. Locally in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and next, the surrounding Counties, we are all too well familiar with an AVM although we don’t know it. This is the same type of computer program that has and is creating each and every properties’ assessed value and we all know how that is turning out. (more…)
August 10, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
There are four kinds of appraisers in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Certified General — These appraisers have met their education and experience prerequisites and passed the general certification exam. They can now appraise virtually all types of property: residential, commercial, both federally related and non-federally related. Pennsylvania Certified General Appraisers work primarily on commercial appraisals which include rental units of 5 or more in a building.
Pennsylvania Certified Residential — These appraisers have also met their education and experience requirements, passed their exam and can appraise all categories of residential property, federally and non-federally related. Pennsylvania Certified Residential Appraisers work primarily on residential appraisals which include single family homes and rental units of 4 or less in a building. (more…)
August 5, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Well, we will start with the easy part. What is the difference between a Row House and a Town House? In a word, nothing. A town house or town home and a row house or row home are the same. The names are only STYLES or DESIGNS of a type of residential dwelling. Both town and row are (more…)
July 15, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Some of the most common Pittsburgh FHA appraisal repairs many homeowners are not aware of nor that these common Pittsburgh FHA appraisal repair items will be needed to be addressed with an FHA appraisal for an FHA loan.
The FHA has three main concerns, for FHA appraisers, they are called the three S’s. The three S’s are Safety, Soundness and Security. A property must meet these three main criteria to qualify for a FHA loan. The most common repair items (more…)
June 22, 2014 by Bostedo Appraisal Services - the Pittsburgh Appraisers
Everyone seems to have heard of carbon monoxide, but not many people seem to know much about it other than hearing about it in a tragic accident on the news. This is a colorless and odorless gas that is produced whenever a fuel source is burned. These fuel sources can consist of many different things including natural gas, kerosene, oil, wood, charcoal and even paint thinner.
The problem is that carbon monoxide cannot be detected without the use of a monitoring device; carbon monoxide if not detected can very easily cause death. Not to mention even smaller amounts can still cause carbon monoxide poisoning, which can lead to serious health issues from lethargy and amnesia to psychosis and even Parkinson’s disease. Considering the (more…)
Performing a recent Pittsburgh appraisal, I thought a post on realtor.com was interesting. There was a recent realtor.com article 6 Costly Mistakes First-Time House Flippers Make. This article was interesting due to many of the situations I have seen considering we do work for many flippers. One in particularly that was NOT in the article which should have been and I will go over that later with a personal story.
