How Accurate Are Home Appraisals?

An appraisal is an opinion of value, supported by sales, and an honest one explains how it got there. Here is what makes the number more or less reliable for a Long Beach house.

What the number rests on

The comparable sales, how closely they match the house, the condition of the house on the value date, and the adjustments the appraiser makes. In a city where a Craftsman in an older district, a ranch house on a quiet street and a condominium near the water can sit a few miles apart, the choice of comparables is most of the work.

Where numbers go wrong

• Weak comparables. Sales that are too far away, too different or too old.
• Missing facts. A back house, a conversion or an addition that is not in the file.
• Wrong date. Using today’s market for a past value date.
• Skipping the house. Valuing from records alone when the condition matters.

What you can do

Send the permit papers, the repair bills and dated photos. Ask how comparables were chosen. And remember that the county’s assessed value, which follows Proposition 13, is a tax record and not an appraisal.

Next step

If you need a number for a reason, call, and we will start with the house. See our residential page.