Attention homeowners in San Jose and Santa Clara County: Need an appraisal?

The top seven reasons CA homeowners use Eric Heideman:

To get a pre-listing appraisal (whether you're using an agent or selling the home on your own)
Challenge property tax assessments
Remove PMI to reduce a monthly mortgage payment
To reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
To review another appraiser's report for verification
If real estate property needs to be divided because of a divorce
Settle an estate in CA by determining the true market value of real estate in question

Need help determining the value of your house in or near San Jose, CA?
Contact Eric Heideman.

We at Eric Heideman understand the special needs of a customer in need of appraisal services. While our typical clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get extra customer service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them.

Pre-listing Services/For Sale By Owner

Since you have an emotional attachment to your home, it's often very hard to be objective about it. Our professional appraisers at Eric Heideman are objective. We won't just tell you what you want to hear, we'll tell you what you need to know. A professional appraisal is a very important negotiating tool once you have an interested buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic price to sell at so your house will attract interested buyers. It's something tangible to show your buyer. It's an independent third party's opinion of your property's value, and not just you saying how much you think your home is worth. Interested buyers assume that you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be far more likely to give credibility to an experienced appraiser's value opinion than yours.

Appraisals to cancel PMI

Getting the PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) canceled from your mortgage loan is a preferred way to cut costs for homeowners. Once your mortgage loan is less than 80% of the value of your house, in most cases you can apply to your lender to have the PMI eliminated from your loan, which will make your monthly payments go down. We are seasoned in helping consumers just like you get rid of unnecessary PMI insurance.

Challenging a property tax assessment

Your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued if you live in a region that's declining or not appreciating as much as other houses close to yours. That means you're going to pay more taxes than you should. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the sooner you take care of a matter like this, the better off you'll be. When contesting your property tax assessment, getting an appraisal report from Eric Heideman is your #1 weapon.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender might just choose to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your property is near a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can be be detrimental to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also inconvenient from a cash flow angle. Eric Heideman can help you reinstate your HELOC.

Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Have you just been given a copy of your appraisal and you'd like to have a seasoned appraiser double-check it for verity or do you want a second opinion without the cost and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? Eric Heideman offers field reviews where we go out and check the subject and comps in question. If you need it in a rush, 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 a retrospective review of any appraisal you may have had in the past. Even though this is usually requested by banks, you may want to exercise this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your house.