# Entrepreneur of the Week Yaron Feldberg # Post 3
Hello to all the members of the group, my name is Yaron Feldberg, and I am an investor, real estate agent and property manager in the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania area of Pittsburgh. The largest city in the Allegheny County area.
Which is better, an appraiser or a real estate professional (agent / broker)?
Unfortunately I never learned hundreds in the country, that I came here. I got to know the world of “how much a house costs” pretty quickly. This is a very interesting world. I broke a lot of myths and got into trouble a few times too fast.
How much is a house? It's a complex world. It is built from lots of formulas, methods and learning that ultimately led you to guess. A calculated guess but in the end is a guess. You will understand how much it is a guess that you will understand how different bodies value a home.
If you happen to look at different sites and come across Assessed Value or Market Value it is an assessment of the local municipality how much in their opinion the property is worth. How do they value the property? They do not enter it, they have no idea the condition of the property inside. Their duty is to test it externally only. So if you ask why this estimate is very low. Because it is a very conservative calculation and does not represent its true equality. Sometimes it can also be height.
So maybe an appraiser? For a long time I wanted to do a cross-appraiser. I told myself that if I wanted to be a cannon in valuing a property, what better way to learn hundreds to be as accurate as possible in my assessment of “how much does a property cost?”. This way I can prevent myself and my clients from making excessive mistakes that can result in the loss of a flip, buying at a high seller, burning a property in the market and so on.
So what does an appraiser do?
Appraisal Appraisal by Sales Comparison Approach (SCA) - A sales comparison approach refers to a real estate appraisal method that compares one property to similar properties or other properties recently sold in an area with similar characteristics. There are other approaches, but for the sake of investment properties, this is the main approach that an appraiser will use. That is, it uses only the history of homes sold. Not homes on the market right now for sale or homes on contract right now. Which makes their assessment for the most part very conservative. Banks and lenders are dying for it. Why? Because a conservative assessment lowers the risk that if a bank has to take the property because of non-payment of the mortgage, the chance that they will return the investment is high.
Even here it makes sense. You would expect an appraiser to be better risky because he learned how much a house costs. A special course just to know how much a house costs. The problem is that in order to be an appraiser you must gain 3000 hours of experience with a senior appraiser. Preferably half of it will be on Residential but not mandatory. That is, most appraisers do not have much experience in Residential and most often they invest in Commercial because it is much more profitable. So the chances of an appraiser arriving without experience are quite high. More than that, they do not always know the area well. But they know the difference between parking on the street, charging for a car 1 or 2. What is the difference between a house with 2 / Integral Garage and 1 / Integral Garage? $ 5000, $ 20,000. An attorney I know who specializes in veteran litigation in the real estate field told me that in court he pressures the appraiser on how he got to the number, most of the time they will say it is a thinking guess. In short imperfections are imperfect.
A few more minor issues, he must do a visual inspection only. He has not opened anything so he does not know what works and what does not. And there is a kind of regulation to them but there are full organizations and each with its own rules so how uniform really.
So why appraiser, one of the banks. You will not be given a loan without an appraiser. This document is an official document that a lot of bodies take seriously. And good appraisers can be found. Just need to know how to search.
Do you take an appraiser? dependent. Usually a good real estate agent will appreciate the property closest to reality. why?
And here's the answer to how much a house costs? - How much a seller is willing to pay.