Edmonton Appraisers

[Courtney Hammond]

I'm wondering if anyone has worked with an Appraiser that accounts for the value of a legally suited basement. We have a few properties we'd love to refinance, but with no recent legally suited comps, and in some areas no in-law comps we aren't getting the true value of our properties in appraisals.

We had one great win, as a property we just finished had 3 legally suited solds in the last 6 months! It was a huge difference! Basically it made our recently finished suite in a slower older area, worth $60,000 more than our suited home in St. Albert in a really nice area. And $60-100,000 more than the average sold in the area its in.

So.. we are wondering if there are any Edmonton Appraisers that actually account for a legally suited home, or if we just have to wait (or make ourselves) a legal suite comp.....

 

[Sherilynn]

Unfortunately it's the luck of the draw. Most banks will hire their own appraiser without your input, and in many cases it is a computer generated selection, meaning the bank cannot specifically request someone with experience with legal suites.

We are closing soon on 3 purpose-built, legally-suited properties in Leduc, and the appraisals were a challenge because there have been no similar properties sold in Leduc in the past 12 months. The bank had requested a suite specialist, but the appraisals used adjusted values of recent sales of single family homes as comparables. The problem there is that Leduc single family homes have recently decreased in price by up to 5%, while suited homes have not due to the lack of supply and the strong demand for suited homes.

We had to pay for a second appraisal for all three properties. The second appraisals used the same single family comparables, but interpreted the data differently, accounting for the supply vs. demand issue. And the second appraisals came in exactly how we expected.

 

[Courtney Hammond]

We thought we had a legal suite friendly appraiser that we used recently as we wanted to know where the homes stood- and possibly use a 2nd mortgage on one of them to put into another property... very frustrating..

First she said that she she just checks to see if it's zoned for a suite- and if it is.. she calls it legal (man don't I wish that's how it works!) Then said that a kitchen in the basement is only 5-10,000 added value from a regular developed basement... um... I'm pretty sure there are thousands ($) of other reasons a legal suited home is different from a regular basement.... two furnaces, permits, separate laundry... sound proofing... the list is long... So it was pretty frustrating that I'd have sell a legal suite in the area in order to get the value out of the house!...

Anyone want to partner up in a flip comp and hold comp in areas????

Anyone selling or buying a legal suite this month ?? I'll buy nearby so I can use you as a comp!