through and around your house, he’ll take a look at three comparable houses in the neighborhood that have recently sold. The idea is that any house is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it. And the best way to determine that is to see what other buyers have been willing to pay for similar homes within the last 3 to 18 months, depending on how active the real estate market is in a particular place. Here’s where the “art” of appraisal comes in, because, like snowflakes, no two properties are the same. Both may have four bedrooms, but one might be on 1/3 acre while the other is on ¼ acre. Both might have 1,800 square feet, but one house may be new construction while the other was built during the Clinton administration. In the end, an appraisal is an opinion backed by facts. Two appraisers can arrive at different values. Both appraisers, however, must show how they arrived at their final number.
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