Love at First Value: A Valentine’s Guide to Selling Your Home With Appraisal in Mind ❤️

Valentine’s Day is all about connection, emotion, and first impressions—and those same elements often come into play when selling a home. Buyers may fall in love the moment they walk through the door, but appraisers look at the transaction through a very different lens. Understanding that distinction can help sellers avoid surprises and keep a contract on track.

Love Your Home—But Know the Market

It’s natural for sellers to feel emotionally attached to their homes. Memories, improvements, and pride of ownership all play a role. However, market value is determined by how a property compares to similar homes that have recently sold—not by sentiment. Separating emotional value from market value early in the process helps set realistic expectations and creates a stronger foundation for pricing and negotiations.

Appeal to Buyers and Appraisers

Decluttering, cleaning, and light staging help buyers envision themselves in the space and can positively influence first impressions. From an appraisal standpoint, overall condition carries significant weight as well. Addressing deferred maintenance, completing minor repairs, and ensuring major systems are functional can help reduce red flags and support a smoother appraisal outcome.

Pricing: Romance vs. Reality

Buyers sometimes make offers based on emotion, competition, or urgency. Appraisers, however, must rely on comparable sales and market data. Pricing a home with current market support in mind helps reduce the risk of an appraisal coming in below contract price—and the renegotiations that can follow.

Marketing With Purpose

Clear, accurate listings and strong photography help tell the story of a home. Providing documentation for updates—such as a new roof, HVAC system, or renovations—can also be valuable. While appraisers don’t assign value dollar-for-dollar for improvements, having clear information helps them better understand condition and compare the home appropriately to recent sales.

Negotiations Are Market-Based

If an appraisal results in further negotiation, it isn’t personal. It reflects what the current market is willing to support. Sellers who understand this distinction are often better prepared to respond calmly, evaluate options, and move forward strategically rather than emotionally.

The Sweetest Takeaway

Selling a home is a balance of emotion and analysis. Buyers may fall in love, but appraisals rely on evidence. Preparing with both perspectives in mind helps protect value, reduce stress, and support a successful closing—this Valentine’s Day and beyond.

Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤️

Experience Matters

When making a decision to contract just about anyone to perform a service, one of the most important qualifiers for most is the experience one brings to the table. You really don’t want someone building your deck who has never built one before or replacing your transmission if they have never worked on cars. It works the same with performing real estate appraisals.

I’ve gone back through my files and found that since starting my business in 2009, I have performed over 6,200 valuations for all kinds of clients: lenders, lawyers, accountants, home owners, estates, real estate agents, etc. Add to that the reports I completed during my training process and then as a certified appraiser in a different office for over 8 years.

So if you need an appraisal performed on a piece of residential real estate, what should you look for that will help you to know that the appraiser has the experience necessary to produce a credible assignment result giving you a valuation that is something that can be deemed reliable?

1. How long have they been appraising?

While it is true that newly certified appraisers do have experience performing appraisals because the profession still is constructed as an apprenticeship program, it takes a good 3 - 5 years to feel fully confident in your ability to perform appraisals on all types of properties. The more unique the property, the more experience necessary to produce a credible report.

2. How many assignments have they performed in your market area?

Time appraising is one factor. Experience in your market is a whole different ball game. I have been performing appraisals in the southwest Pennsylvania areas of Westmoreland, Armstrong, Indiana, Butler, Allegheny and Cambria Counties for years. However, I have never performed an appraisal in Greene County. My experience as an appraiser in some areas does not make me an expert in others.

3. Does the appraiser have experience appraising the type of property you need appraised?

Standard “cookie cutter” properties are those properties that are homogenous to the market area. Think about an established residential plan that has over 200 homes in which there is a steady sales activity. These are typically easy to appraise and does not take a significant amount of additional research or analysis. What about a home that was built on a slab in an area where 99% of the homes have a basement? Or a condo in a plan that is the only condominium plan in the entire county and you are lucky if one sells per year such as in Armstrong County? How about a 1 bedroom home where less than 2% of the homes in the county are 1 bedroom homes? These more unique properties take additional effort, time and expertise to be able to know how to extract what factors have the highest marketable indicators and contributory value in the market. Additionally, the report writing takes longer in order to make sure that your intended user understands the analysis and conclusions contained in your report.

When you are in need of a residential real estate appraisal, it is important to know that you can confidently rely on the conclusions. It doesn’t mean you will always agree with the value, but if you choose wisely, you can be sure to rely on the report as a good representation of that properties estimated market value. At Town & Country Residential Appraisals, we can give you that type of confidence for all types of residential properties in the counties we cover. We have the experience that matters!