Westchester Appraisals
Our local appraiser has over 17 years of experience appraising in Westchester county. His familiarity with Westchester’s many diverse neighborhoods is invaluable knowledge when providing accurate real estate appraisals. Conducting Appraisals in Westchester are fairly easy. Neighborhoods have similar types of homes within them so it’s usually fairly easy to find good comparables. An occasional problem arises when appraising in a rural area. Westchester is predominantly suburban/rural. When appraising in the rural areas, the distance guidelines of 1 mile must usually be increased. Normally this doesn’t’ pose a problem because the neighborhoods extend across many miles unlike in say Brooklyn where if you cross the street you can entire a completely different neighborhood. Just like Nassau & Suffolk, an important factor are the school systems and district classes. As a result, taxes can be very high. It is for this reason why the request for tax grievance appraisals (Used to attempt reducing property taxes) are usually higher in these suburban neighborhoods.
The MLS function is top notch in Westchester. MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is used to attain data for comparable sales and listings. The element which is truly outstanding is the radius function. This function enables the search for comparable sales/listings within a specific distance. As a result, a great deal of time is saved . This is in contrast to say appraising in Suffolk county where one is forced to plot random listings on a map to see the distance before knowing which are in the subject’s immediate market area. Unlike the other counties excluding Bronx, it isn’t a guessing game.
The detail of information available through Westchester MLS is impressive. There are usually many pictures of the interior which gives the appraiser a clear idea of interior condition. There are also intimate details of the transaction which gives information such as the broker for the deal, the original listing price, type of financing, any concessions etc. This information is readily available which facilitates the strict requirements imposed by today’s appraisal management companies and lenders.
