The scoop on appraisals, what are they, why they are important and what you should do with them.
Today we want to talk to you about an appraisal. When people hear the term appraisal, they think buying and selling real estate. However, an insurance claim appraisal is very different.
Property loss appraisals are meant to be a third party dispute resolution to avoid litigation a lot of times, and also try to limit costs and timeframe. Property loss appraisals are meant to not take as long and not cost as much but sometimes that’s not the case.
And honestly, not every insurance claim is a good candidate for an appraisal. So you would need to talk to someone that is experienced in doing those to find out if your claim is good for an appraisal.
Yeah, not all claims are ready. Appraisal’s not meant to be a dispute resolution for causation or for coverage. So it’s not meant to say, “Hey, did wind damage my home? Did fire damage my home?” It’s more everybody’s agreed that something’s happened here, we just don’t agree on how much it costs to fix it. A good example is you’ve got a roof, it was damaged by hail last March. This entire time, the insurance company has been giving you a hard time saying, “Well, your contractor’s trying to charge too much, or I know other people that can do it cheaper.” Or any number of things they try to say when they’re trying to offer you less money than once you feel like you deserve. That’s something that would be right for appraisal. Everybody’s agreed the roof needs to be replaced. What we’re not agreeing on is how much it’s going to cost to do that, so that would be a prime example of what will be right for appraisal.
You’ve asked and demanded a couple of times. You’ve said, “Hey, you guys need to pay my contractor what he’s asking.” They say, “No, we know other guys that are cheaper. We searched on Craig’s list, we found Javier, Home Improvements, and he wants to do it for half the price.” Okay, great, but that’s not what the customer wants. In order to take that out of the equation. You can go around the insurance company, you can go around the contractor. It’s meant to be a third party dispute resolution so that these independent appraisers will get together and decide the cost of your loss.
Word to the wise, make sure that you are selecting an appraiser that is competent and knowledgeable to appraise whatever it is you’re having them appraise. You wouldn’t have a plumber appraise your roof costs. You wouldn’t have your roofer appraise your plumbing costs. So, just be sure to name someone that is qualified to do it. And if you have any questions on appraisal, please give us a call. Our phone number is on the bottom of the screen.
Right. It’s important to note that appraisal is very niche. It is. You need somebody that knows construction, knows how to price materials properly, labor properly. It’s also binding in some states. Other states, not so much. We can talk about that later, but a lot of times there’s no turning back. So if you hire the wrong person to operate your appraisal, you could be putting yourself in a bad situation.
That’s all for today. Thank you.
