Tips to get the best home appraisal value

[PrincessFiona]

We're having our home appraised Monday in the hopes of refinancing.

I thought I would turn to the fountain of iMSN wisdom. Can you all give me some tips of things that I could do this weekend around the house to increase the odds of an appraisal for the amount we need?

Kris

[diggitydot]

I'm not sure that there's really anything to do to increase an appraisal.

[houseelf]

I have cleaned my fingers to the bone only to have the guy say, "Meh, you didn't have to do that".

I'm not sure if this helped but while he walked around, I let him know that the house across the street sold for 1/3 more than ours, the one down the street is listed for X dollars above ours, and I remind him that we bought post crash. Maybe this did nothing, but I did throw whatever little advocacy I could out there.

Good luck. Fingers crossed for you.

[Deebs]

We've always been told to highlight any improvements we made (adding granite, updating bathrooms, etc).

[metroguy]

probably the best way to get a good appraisal is to go through a mortgage broker.. they usually pick banks that are 'loose'. of course with all the regulations now a day--it's near impossible. the other option is go through a small local bank--usually they'll use a local appraisal co which should be more accurate. notice-- i didn't say anything about the appraisal--usually they just look at comparable comps and call it..