Appraisal services for Dewitt and Clinton County homeowners

The top 7 reasons why MI homeowners hire Cara Smith:

  1. Get a pre-listing appraisal (whether you're using an agent or selling the home on your own)
  2. To challenge a MI property tax assessment
  3. To reduce a mortgage payments by removing PMI
  4. Reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)
  5. Review another appraiser's report for verification
  6. If real estate property needs to be divided because of a divorce
  7. To determine the true market value of real estate in question to settle an estate

Do you own a house in or near Dewitt? Do you need help determining the value of your real estate?
Contact Cara Smith.

At Cara Smith, we understand the individual needs of a consumer looking for appraisal services. Our customary business clients are used to the appraisal process and the usual reporting formats. Being a homeowner that most likely doesn't look at appraisals every day,we will provide you with extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to more clearly understand what we do and how we document the results of our analysis.

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

Since you have an emotional attachment to your home, it's often very hard to be objective about it. Our professional appraisers at Cara Smith 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 crucial negotiating tool once you have an attainable buyer. It's something concrete to show your buyer. It's an independent third party's opinion of your property's value, and not just how much your house is worth. Potential buyers know that you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be more likely to give credibility to a seasoned appraiser's value report than yours.

Need to remove PMI?

A preferred way to cut expenses for homeowners is to get the PMI removed 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 property. In most cases you can apply to the lender to have the PMI eliminated from your loan. Cara Smith is experienced in helping clients just like you abolish unneeded and unwanted PMI insurance.

Challenge a property tax assessment

Lets say you live in a local area that's declining -- your local tax assessor may have your house overvalued. That only means you are most likely paying more taxes than you should. The faster you take care of things like this, the better off you'll be, since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period. A professional appraisal from Cara Smith is your strongest weapon when contesting your property tax assessment.

HELOC recently frozen?

Even if your specific property has not declined in value, your lender just may make the decision to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your property is in a declining area. This can be be destructive to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also disadvantageous from a cash flow angle. Cara Smith can help you reinstate your HELOC.

We Provide Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Would you prefer a second opinion without the cost and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? Or do you need a professional to double-check your appraisal for preciseness? An appraiser from Cara Smith can go out and check the subject and comps in a field review. Or, if you need it immediately, 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.

Need a retrospective review of an appraisal report? We can help you with that Even though this is typically requested by banks, you may need to make use of this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your house.