Does Ground Rent negatively affect property appraisal

[Nicole A.]

For those of you familiar with ground rent, I could use your thoughts. A couple of you I have privately PM'd and thank you, @Russell Braziland @Ned Carey.

I have a property under contract due to close soon, and there is $120/year ground rent. The cost if I choose to redeem it is $2,000. The ground rent is unregistered.

Once I fix up the property, I will be doing a cash-out refinance which will require an appraisal and I'd love to hear your experience with getting an appraisal on a property with ground rent. Did it negatively affect the value? By how much?

In addition, did it cause issues with refinancing due to the property being lease hold rather than fee simple? The paralegal at my title company said that this has been a problem for a client in the past. I will be asking my lender this question, but curious if many others have experienced this.

I'm trying to best determine if this will be a potential roadblock in the refinance stage.

Finally, if you suggest I redeem the property, would you say it's easy to do on my own or should I hire an attorney?