Attention homeowners in Saint Joseph and Berrien County: Need an appraisal?

Here are the top seven reasons MI homeowners need Midwest Appraisal and Consulting:

  1. To get a pre-listing appraisal (whether you're using an agent or selling the home on your own)
  2. Challenge property tax assessments
  3. Remove PMI to reduce your mortgage payments
  4. To reinstate your Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
  5. To review another appraiser's report for verification
  6. If real estate needs to be divided because of a divorce
  7. To settle an estate in Berrien county or MI by determining the true market value of property in question

Do you own a home in or near Saint Joseph? Do you need help deciding the price of your real estate?
Contact Midwest Appraisal and Consulting.

At Midwest Appraisal and Consulting, we understand the unique needs of a customer after appraisal services. While our typical business clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get extra service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them.

For Sale By Owner/Pre-Listing Services

Since you have an emotional attachment to your own house, it's often very hard to be objective about it. A professional appraiser is objective and will tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. In addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your house will attract interested buyers, a professional appraisal is a very important negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer. It's something concrete to show your buyer. An appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your home's value -- not just you saying how much your house is worth. Potential buyers assume you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be more likely to give credibility to an accomplished appraiser's value report than yours.

Need to cancel PMI?

PMI stands for Private Mortgage Insurance. An attractive way to cut expenses for homeowners is to get the PMI eliminated from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan is less than 80% of the value of your property. In most cases you can apply to your lender to have the PMI canceled from your loan. We are veterans in helping consumers just like you delete unneeded PMI insurance.

Challenge Berrien county's assessment of your property

If you live in an area that is going down or not appreciating as much as other homes close to yours, your local tax assessor may have your house overvalued. This means you're going to pay higher taxes than you should be paying. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the sooner you take care of a matter like this, the better. When contesting your property tax assessment, getting an appraisal from Midwest Appraisal and Consulting is your number one weapon.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

If your property is in a declining area, your lender might just make the decision to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) - even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can be be detrimental to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also disadvantageous from a cash flow viewpoint. An appraisal from Midwest Appraisal and Consulting can help you reinstate your HELOC.

Need Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services?

Would you like a second opinion without the added expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? Or do you want a veteran appraiser to double-check your appraisal for verity? We can go out and check the subject and comps in question in a field review. Or, if you need it in a rush, we can provide you with a desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files.

We can also provide a retrospective review of any appraisal you may have had done before. While usually requested by banks, you may need to exercise this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your house.