Attention homeowners in Reading and Berks County: Need an appraisal?

The top 7 reasons PA homeowners order from Irene Maurer:

  1. To get a pre-listing appraisal (whether they're selling the home on their own or using a real estate agent)
  2. Challenge Berks county's assessment of your property
  3. Remove PMI to cut your mortgage payments
  4. Reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
  5. Review another appraiser's report for verification
  6. In the case of a PA divorce, where real estate property needs to be divided
  7. Settle an estate in PA by determining the true market value of property in question

Do you own a home in or near Reading? Do you need help determining the value of your real estate?
Contact Irene Maurer.

We at Irene Maurer understand the individual needs of a consumer after appraisal services. While our typical clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get an extra level of customer service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them.

Pre-listing Services/For Sale By Owner (FSBO)

It's very hard to be objective about your own home because of your emotional attachment to it. Our professional appraisers at Irene Maurer are objective. We won't just tell you what you want to hear, we'll tell you what you need to know. In addition to helping you set a realistic price to sell at so your property will attract many interested buyers, a professional appraisal is a very valuable negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer. The appraisal is something concrete to show your buyer. It's an independent third party's opinion of your home's price, and not just how much your house is worth. Potential buyers assume you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be more likely to give credibility to an accomplished appraiser's value judgement than yours.

Need to remove PMI?

A preferred way to cut costs for homeowners is to get the PMI eliminated from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan is less than 80% of the value of your house. In most cases you can apply to the lender to have the PMI removed from your loan. Irene Maurer is veterans in helping clients just like you remove unneeded PMI insurance.

Challenging property tax assessments

Your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued if your house is not appreciating as much as other houses close by. This means you're paying higher taxes than you should be paying. The quicker you take care of a matter like this, the better off you'll be, since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period. An expert appraisal from Irene Maurer is your number one weapon when contesting your property tax assessment.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender might just decide to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your property is near a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. Not only can this be inconvenient from a cash flow standpoint, but it can be damaging to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. Irene Maurer can help you reinstate your HELOC.

We Also Offer Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Do you need a seasoned appraiser to double-check your appraisal for efficiency, or do you need a second opinion without the charge and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? In a field review we'll go out and check the subject and comps. 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 you with a a retrospective review of any appraisal you may have had in the past. While typically requested by banks, you may want to exploit this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your property.