The top reasons Arkansas homeowners call on Harmon Appraisal & Consulting, LLC:

1. Find the right listing price (whether you're using a real estate agent or selling the home on your own)
2. Challenge Logan County's assessment of your property
3. Remove PMI to lower a mortgage payment
4. Reinstate your Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
5. To 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 to settle an estate

We at Harmon Appraisal & Consulting, LLC understand the particular needs of a consumer looking for appraisal services. Our business practices and reporting formats are familiar to our business clients like lenders, lawyers, and accountants. Being a person not in the real estate industry that most likely doesn't look at appraisals every day, you can expect extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to more clearly understand what we do and how we document our conclusions.

Pre-listing Services/For Sale by Owner

It's very hard to be objective about your house because you most likely have an emotional attachment to it. Professional appraisers, like the ones at Harmon Appraisal & Consulting, LLC, will be objective. We will tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. A professional appraisal is very important as a negotiating tool once you have a likely buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your house will attract buyers. The appraisal is something tangible to show your buyer. An appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your home's value -- not just how much you think your home is worth. Potential buyers assume that you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be much more likely to give credibility to an expert appraiser's value report than yours.

Challenging a property tax assessment

If you live in a region that is going down or not appreciating as much as other properties close to yours, your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued. This means you're going to pay higher taxes than you should be paying. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the faster you take care of a matter like this, the better. An appraisal report from Harmon Appraisal & Consulting, LLC is your perfect weapon when contesting your property tax assessment.

Appraisals to remove PMI

PMI stands for Private Mortgage Insurance. A preferred way to cut costs for homeowners is to get the PMI canceled from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. Once your mortgage loan amount is down below 80% of the value of your property, in most cases you can apply to a lender to have the PMI eliminated from your loan, which will make your monthly payments go down. We're qualified in helping people just like you abolish unwanted and unneeded PMI insurance.

HELOC recently frozen?

Even if your specific property has not declined in value, your lender might decide to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your home is near a declining area. Not only can this be difficult and inconvenient from a cash flow angle, but it can be negative on your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. Harmon Appraisal & Consulting, LLC can help you reinstate your HELOC.

We Also Offer 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 want an expert to double-check your appraisal for verity? Harmon Appraisal & Consulting, LLC offers field reviews where we'll go out and check the subject and comparables in question. If you need it ASAP, we'll provide 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 retrospective review of any appraisal you may have had in the past. Although most appraisal reviews are requested by lenders for quality control, homeowners suspecting they've been the victim of mortgage fraud are prudent to invest in a second opinion.

Estate Planning and Estate Settlements

Date of Death (Estate)                                                                                                                 

There are many situations where you need an experienced, qualified, and licensed appraisal expert to determine the retrospective “Fair Market Value” (FMV appraisal) of real property in your estate as of the date of death. Many estates consist of a portfolio of commercial, industrial, and residential real estate need to establish stepped up real property tax basis for IRS tax filing purposes. Determining fair market value of your estate as of the date of death can establish basis. In addition you may need a valuation expert to determine the appraised value of fractional ownership interests of the estate.

Establishing Basis for Estate Planning Purposes

As an appraiser, we are often called upon to prepare an appraisal for an estate or trust to establish “basis” for estate tax liability or trust purposes by a certified designated residential or commercial real estate appraiser. If the property was acquired from a decedent the basis is typically the fair market value on the date of the decedent’s death (I.R.C. § 1014). An alternative valuation date may be chosen by the executor that is six months after the date of death, and typically, only if a tax savings can be shown by your tax preparer, accountant or real estate attorney.

Realty Q&A Getting an inherited home appraised and then sold

By Lew Sichelman

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) --Question: I am concerned about property that is in my parents' trust. Since they both have died, me being the executor, I have had the home on the market in Apple Valley, Calif., since February 2006 with three different real estate companies. I also have dropped the price from $525,000 to $387,000 and still have had no bites. It is a lovely place that needs the right buyers.

Anyway, for tax purposes, how can I find an appraiser who would place a value on the house for December 2005 when my father died so I can claim a loss on the property when it sells, if it ever does? Joanna Ellis.

Answer: The direct answer to your question is that any qualified appraiser should be able to reconstruct the value of the property in question on the day your last surviving parent died. The Internal Revenue Service suggests you insist on someone who is licensed in California and a member of a professional association.

However, you needn't go to that trouble because there is no loss, at least not yet. Just because you believe the place should have sold for $525,000 and didn't doesn't mean there is a loss. You can't lose something you never had, so as long as the house eventually sells for more than your adjusted basis in the place, you'll have a gain, not a loss.

Your adjusted basis in the property is its value at the time it was inherited by you. Obviously, at this point, you'll need an appraiser to help you figure out what the fair market value was at that time. But even at that, the IRS says that "to claim and prove that you're entitled to a loss because the fair market value dropped dramatically and you sold at a much lower fair market value several months later...... would be difficult."

The eventual sales price could be documented through the closing statement, but you will need a qualified appraisal to establish that the basis (fair market value as of a certain date in time) was greater in order to claim a loss. Again, it needs to be from a qualified appraiser.

The IRS suggests that you read two publications: Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets (Pub.544) and Basis of Assets (Pub. 551). Visit the IRS Web site.

House to House: Home’s value is determined by free market value, not realtor

by Ethan Nobles

Real estate prices are set by current market conditions. That might seem like an elementary statement, but some people believe a good Realtor can help net an unreasonable price for a home. That’s simply not the case.

Let’s say, for example, Sue Seller wants to sell her home. She goes to see Smiling Pete, a Realtor with Fighting Panther Real Estate in Benton, and visits with him about selling it. Pete knows that the market determines the value of Sue’s home, so he does some research and concludes that the house is worth about $200,000 on the open market. Sue, however, thinks she should be able to get $250,000 for her home and insists that Pete list it for that much. What should Pete do?

Greta Moore of G Moore Properties in North Little Rock said Pete’s problem is not an uncommon one. She said Realtors® are often expected to sell a house for more than it’s worth. In Pete’s case, he could either list Sue’s home for $250,000 and avoid arguing with her, or he could be honest with her and tell her it’s unlikely she will sell her home for that much money so she should consider asking $200,000 for it.

It might be uncomfortable for Pete to go the honest route, but Moore said telling Sue she has unreasonable expectations is the best way to go. Not only will that reinforce Pete’s reputation as a trustworthy Realtor, but it will also ultimately protect Sue. If Pete agrees to list the home for $250,000, he’s looking at a situation where the home could sit on the market for months because it’s extremely overpriced. Sue might get lucky and find someone willing to pay $250,000 for her home, but it’s far more likely that the home won’t attract any serious attention until she lowers her expectations to a reasonable level.

Meanwhile, Sue will lose something very valuable until her home sells — time. People who are selling homes are generally in the market to buy one, too, and it’s hard to consider taking on a new mortgage while waiting to get out from under an existing one. In Sue’s case, she might miss out on a lot of great homes while waiting for her current one to sell.

You can read more of the article at Arkansas Online Homes

About Real Estate: Prepare for appraiser’s visit to ensure home gets high marks

by David W. Myers

Q. We are planning to refinance our mortgage, but we’re concerned that several refinancing deals and even home sales in our neighborhood have recently fallen out of escrow because their appraisals came in too low for the bank to justify making the loan. What can we do to make sure that our home is appraised at the highest value possible?

A. Several readers like you have been asking similar questions, especially because values in many communities remain far below those of a year or two ago, and lenders — unlike in the past — are now under pressure from regulators to ensure that the properties they finance or refinance today are actually worth the amount that they’re willing to lend.

You can do several things to help ensure that your property appraises at the highest value possible. First, because appraisers check local sale prices when determining how much your own property is worth, it’s wise to contact a local real estate agent before applying for the loan and ask for a list of recent sales in the area. Also ask the agent if any sale prices that seem low may have been caused by unusual circumstances, such as sellers who were willing to offer a cut-rate price because of a divorce or job relocation. Relay that information to the appraiser so he can take it into account when trying to place a value on your own home.

Make sure that you are present when the appraiser visits, and that the house is clean as a whistle. That includes picking up any clutter, vacuuming or steam-cleaning carpets, shining windows and making sure that the yard is mowed and well-manicured. Anything you can do to enhance your home’s curb appeal may add thousands of dollars to the appraiser’s valuation, which, in turn, can make the difference between getting the loan or getting denied.

It also helps to type up a list of your home’s special attributes and give it to the appraiser when he arrives. Appraisers today are extremely busy, so they might not notice your special woodwork, the energy-saving windows you recently installed or your brand-new dishwasher unless you point the improvements out to him. Make sure the list also includes any other special features of the property, such as an extra-large lot, great views of the mountains or water or whether the neighborhood is served by outstanding public schools.

If all of your efforts don’t raise the appraisal high enough to justify the loan, contact the bank and ask for a copy of the document: You paid for it and federal law requires that the lender send you one upon request. Look for errors on the report — the most common include an underestimation of the square footage of the home or size of the lot — and then call the appraiser directly to recheck his work. If he refuses to raise the appraised amount, call your state’s appraisal board, real estate commission and other regulators for further help.

You also should plead your case directly to the bank. Most lenders still have an “appraisal review” process for those who can’t get a loan because the house was undervalued by an appraiser, even though new federal regulations prevent them from directly meddling with an appraiser’s initial conclusion of the property’s value.

Q. We signed a one-year lease for a house in May of last year, and part of the lease specifically gave my wife and I use of the home’s two-car carport. The lease expired a few months ago, and now we are renting the place on a month-to-month basis. Lately, the owner began parking his camper in one of the two slots in the carport without asking our permission, which forces either my wife or me to park one of our cars on the street. Are we still entitled to have both spaces in the carport, even though the lease has expired?

A. Yes, you probably still have the right to use both spaces. Though rental laws vary from one area to the next, most jurisdictions require the terms of an expired lease to be “held over” when a tenancy converts to a month-to-month basis because no new lease is signed. This means that until terms of the tenancy are formally changed, all of the rights you had under the original lease (including the use of both parking spots) remain intact.

You can read more of the article at Arkansas Online Homes

House to House: Falling list prices, low interest rates are good news for buyers

Now that the first-time and repeat homebuyer tax credits have expired, everyone — from learned economists to the National Association of Realtors — is predicting a slump in the housing market in the months to come.

The tax credits, which ran out at the end of April, undoubtedly had an impact on sales in Arkansas. Through April, 2,332 single-family new and existing homes were sold by Realtors through multiple-listing services throughout Arkansas. That figure is up 24.1 percent from 1,879 homes sold through the first four months of 2009.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said he figures on at least a few down months, as far as sales go, now that the tax credits have ended. It’s hard to argue too much with that logic. We’ve been operating under one form of tax incentive for homebuyers or another since 2008. When you remove such an incentive — first-time buyers received as much as $8,000, and repeat buyers got as much as $6,500 — it only stands to reason that sales will drop as a result.

Justin Moore, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Arkansas, said at least a couple of things are out there that should keep buyers interested: unexpectedly low interest rates and lower list prices.

Back in November 2008, the Federal Reserve announced a program to purchase mortgage-backed securities. The Reserve cut that program off in March of this year, after spending $1.25 trillion in the mortgage-backed securities market.

The Fed’s action helped keep mortgage rates low, of course, and many speculated that interest rates would increase again after the program ended. Instead, the average mortgage rate on a 30-year, fixed-interest loan has remained below 5 percent.

Why? Economic trouble in Europe has prompted investors to look for safer investments — such as the U.S. mortgage-backed securities market. That private investment has picked up where the Fed left off. Higher investment in mortgage-backed securities translates into less risk, lower yields and falling interest rates.

Moore said no one is sure how long investors will flock to the mortgage-backed securities market, so there’s a sense of “hurry up” involved, as those low interest rates might not last long.

You can read more of the article at Arkansas Online Homes

Realty Times - Fort Smith, Arkansas Real Estate Market Conditions

Realty Times - Fort Smith, Arkansas Real Estate Market Conditions