What is an Appraisal for Real Estate?
A real estate appraisal is a calculation of the value of a home. A real estate appraisal can be done through a few different methods and for a few reasons, but the goal is to determine how much a piece of real property is worth.
Real Estate Agent Explains Appraisals
Just as real estate can be used for different things – like personal use, recreation, investing – real estate appraisals are done for many reasons: placing insurance, mortgage verification, home equity lines of credit and investment value (possible future value). However, because all of these methods are done through a mathematical calculation, they cannot necessarily pinpoint the exact value of a property at a particular time. Selling a property on the open market is the only way to determine how much it’s really worth to a buyer.
Real estate agents may do a market evaluation which is similar to an appraisal – but it is not an appraisal – and is only done to try to determine a price for the sale of the property. An actual appraisal can only be done by an appraiser. All real estate appraisers must be licensed when working in the province of Alberta and are either members of the Appraisal Institute of Canada or the Canadian National Association of Real Estate Appraisers.
