Is there "soft appraisal"?

Question

Is it possible to contact appraisal people (or someone else; no idea who) and ask for a "soft appraisal" based on images and current known conditions, but without them going to the property?

By "soft appraisal," I mean to get an estimate of how much the house is worth/would appraise if I'd do XYZ to it.

Basically, I'm looking to get an experienced view (as I'm a new out-of-state investor) to know what the house could be worth.

I'm looking to invest in TX, and I don't know the area that well. I can look at Zillow or any other websites, but I don't know how much the information is worthy from an appraisal point of view. So the way that I see it is that I prefer to pay someone $200-$500 to validate my price hypothesis.

* I'm not asking for a specific person, as I know this is not allowed by the forum's rules. But I only ask to know if such a thing exists

Loic Yarde · Answer

@Leeor Neh Change your mindset. Agents should be your best friends we need then even if it's off-markets. I take care of all my agents who assist me even the off-markets. They can tell you alot about the area where your subject property and they can provide CMA reports which will help you figure out whether you should pay for an appraisal. You can't go about paying for an appraisal for every property you like. Start with an agent get CMA or even BPO then compare that with your own comps you pull from zillow/redfin. Then if the market value all falls into the same range then you can confidently move forward with an appraisal at your own expense.

Leeor Neh · Answer

Thanks Chris.

@Loic, thanks for the feedback!

Chris Mason · Answer

https://www.appraisalinstitute... and click "find an appraiser."

Though if you're willing to pay "$200 to $500," you may as well get a full appraisal. If you're contacting the appraiser directly from that website above, that means no appraisal management company taking a cut, so the net proceeds to the appraiser of, say, $450, isn't actually off what the net proceeds would be if you ordered an appraisal through a lender and paid $600.

Leeor Neh · Answer

Thank you @Loic! Any idea on the time frame for desk appraisals?

@Caleb, thanks. I don't work with an agent since it's an off-market deal. Besides, the agent will only be able to look at MLS properties which are all posted on Redfin/Zillow, etc. no? (no disrespect to any agent, only trying to understand better)

Loic Yarde · Answer

Hey Leeor,

You can get a desk appraisal. Full appraisals post pandemic are few weeks out so desk appraisals are your best bet right now. Zillow is not the best tool, redfin has been more valuable to us than Zillow.

Caleb Brown · Answer

You can have an agent run and send comps. Besides that you'd have to pay for an appraiser. Either way would work.

Is there "soft appraisal"?

Is there "soft appraisal"?

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