A home appraisal is part of the final stretch before selling your home and must go smoothly before you can celebrate a done deal. The National Association of Realtors reports that appraisal issues in May 2020 accounted for 18% of delayed contract settlements and 6% of terminated contracts.

Using our home appraisal checklist, curated with the help of industry appraisers and real estate experts, you’ll easily prepare for and navigate this crucial step and head to the closing table without major hiccups.

Checklist: 11 home appraisal to-dos for sellers

After you accept an offer, the buyer’s mortgage lender contacts a third-party appraisal management company (AMC) to perform an appraisal. A residential home appraiser’s job is to provide an impartial opinion of your home’s fair market value so the lender knows that the house is worth what the buyer asks to borrow for the purchase.

To conduct an accurate evaluation, the appraiser will evaluate local comparable sales and conduct an onsite visit of your property to evaluate an array of external and internal factors.

Keep in mind that at this stage in the game, you aren’t going to dramatically increase your property value with any last-minute preparations. However, you can help to ensure the appraiser has a good experience and has all the relevant information they need to come up with an opinion of value.

1. Research your home’s value

Before arranging for when the appraiser can visit, our experts suggest getting a ballpark idea of what your house is worth, especially if you’ve lived in your home for a while. That way, you’ll know if the appraised value is off or if it’s reasonably accurate.

Although appraisal surprises can happen, most homeowners seem to have a good perception of home value, according to Quicken Loans’ National Home Price Perception Index. Data from October 2019 shows that appraisals were an average of 0.45% lower than what homeowners expected, with those in metropolitan areas less than 2% lower or higher than what homeowners thought they might be.

Here are a few resources to review:

Online tools to check your asking price

Online tools such as HomeLight’s Home Value Estimator can provide some help here, using information from multiple sources based on current market trends.

However, the algorithms these estimators use can’t measure every detail like an appraiser can, such as recent upgrades that the tool didn’t include in its calculations. When you answer our 7 question quiz, we can predict your home’s current value with far greater accuracy: