Appraiser needed in Houston

[Derek Malveaux]

Searching for an appraiser in the Houston area that can appraise a proposed new home construction.  I'm trying to decide what to build on my lot, but what I'm planning will not have any comps for the area.  I'm hoping an appraiser can give me a valuation based on a blueprint and the location. I don't want to build and then have the home not appraise for what I need to sell it for to make a profit.  Any help is appreciated.

[Lee Hampton]

I would not spend the money on an appraiser, especially if there are no comps in the area. There are two methods of appraisals, Sales approach vs cost approach. The sales approach looks at comps, if there are no real comps, appraiser will expand the area until they find something, but this is useless for your purposes. The other method is the Cost approach. This is useful for the purposes of determining loan value by the lender but adds no value to you as there is often no correlation between build cost and sales price. But……… unless the lot is far outside the city limits, there should be comps.

Your best bet is to get your realtor to provide there opinion of value. If you have no realtor and have all your ducks in order, and if the lot is within the city limits of Houston, I can take 5 minutes and give you an opinion from a developer’s perspective.