FHA Appraisal Services & California Residential Appraisals

Know the value of your home before you buy or sell with a residential appraisal from Golden State Appraisals, Inc. Our residential appraisers experts can assist with a variety of valuations for single-family and multi-family housing.

Our residential appraisers can valuate the actual worth of your home so that you can get a fair price – whether you’re buying or selling. If you are selling your home, an appraisal gives you collateral to ask for the full value of your home’s worth, or more, depending on the market. If you are counting on the value of your home to secure a loan for the purchase of a new house, this document will clearly state your property’s value to the lender.

For those who are purchasing a residential property, an appraisal will help you figure out the true value of the house. This can serve as a powerful tool in the negotiation process. This thorough valuation will also uncover any of the property’s flaws, such as a crumbling foundation, so that you will know what (if any) repair work may be required. Knowing this information in advance may give you the leverage you need to ask that the seller make repairs or set aside an allowance for work to be performed.

Making Homes Affordable

The Obama Administration has introduced a comprehensive Financial Stability Plan to address the key problems at the heart of the current crisis and get our economy back on track. A critical piece of that effort is Making Homes Affordable, a plan to stabilize our housing market and help up to 7 to 9 million Americans reduce their monthly mortgage payments to more affordable levels. The Making Homes Affordable Refinance Program gives up to 4 to 5 million homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac an opportunity to refinance into more affordable monthly payments. FHA- backed loans for the purchase of real estate as well as the refinancing of existing loans are a large part of this new program.

Per U.S. department of Housing and Urban Development Mortgage Letter 2008-39 (December 17, 2008), a new time line and eligibility criteria has been set for the appraisal of all FHA loans. Section 202(f) of the National Housing Act mandates that all appraisers chosen or approved to conduct appraisals of properties that will be security for FHA-insured mortgages must: (1) be "certified" by the State in which the property to be appraised is located; or by a nationally recognized professional appraisal organization, and (2) have demonstrated verifiable education in the appraisal requirements established by FHA. (Note that the term "state" as used throughout this Mortgagee Letter includes U.S. Territories.)

FHA appraisers must follow the strict guidelines and criteria set forth by HUD and adhere to the inspection and reporting requirements outlined in the HUD Handbook-4150.2. Additionally, all FHA appraisers must be listed on the current FHA Appraiser Roster and had a minimum license designation of "certified residential" (AR) appraiser.

Golden State Appraisals, Inc. © maintains FHA-approved appraisers on staff, in order to provide you with qualified appraisal services for all FHA transactions. To verify an appraiser is listed on the FHA Appraiser Roster, please visit https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/apprlook.cfm. Our staff is experienced and trained in the special appraisal requirements of FHA loans and will provide you with outstanding service, so that you may take advantage of the new programs available to home buyers.

Each home appraisal we perform in California is conducted by a licensed professional who is in good standing with the Office of Real Estate Appraisers (OREA). We are able to turn around most residential orders within two to four days depending on the complexity of the assignment.

Please give us a call today at 1-888-515-4078 to get started.