Real estate appraisal services for homeowners in the city of Joplin and Jasper County

The top seven reasons MO homeowners hire Zerkel Appraisals:

  1. To get a pre-listing appraisal (whether they're selling the home on their own or using an agent)
  2. To challenge a MO property tax assessment
  3. To lower a mortgage payments by removing PMI
  4. Reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)
  5. Verify a different appraiser's report
  6. In the case of a MO divorce, where real estate property needs to be divided
  7. Determine the true market value of real estate in question to settle an estate in MO

Own a home in or near Joplin, MO and need help deciding the price of it?
Contact Zerkel Appraisals.

At Zerkel Appraisals, we understand the particular needs of a homeowner looking for appraisal services. While our typical business clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get extra service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them.

For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) / Pre-Listing Services

Since you have an emotional attachment to your own house, it's often very hard to be objective about it. The professional appraisers at Zerkel Appraisals will tell you what you need to know -- not just what you want to hear. We are objective. A professional appraisal is a very valuable negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your property will attract interested buyers. It gives you something concrete to show your buyer. An appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your house's price -- not just how much you think your home is worth. Potential buyers know that you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be far more likely to give credibility to a professional appraiser's value conclusion than yours.

PMI Removal Appraisals

PMI stands for Private Mortgage Insurance. A preferred way to save money for homeowners is getting the PMI removed 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 house, in most cases you can apply to the lender to have the PMI canceled from your loan, which will make your monthly payments go down. At Zerkel Appraisals, we're seasoned in helping customers just like you do away with undesirable PMI insurance.

Challenging a property tax assessment

Your local tax assessor may have your house overvalued if you live in an area that's going down or is not appreciating as much as other properties close to yours. This means you are probably paying higher taxes than you should be paying. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the sooner you take care of things like this, the better. When challenging your property tax assessment, getting an expert appraisal from Zerkel Appraisals is your chief weapon.

HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender just might decide to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your house is close to a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can be be bad for your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also disadvantageous from a cash flow standpoint. Zerkel Appraisals can provide you with efficient appraisal that will help you reinstate your home equity line of credit.

We Provide Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Do you need a professional to double-check your appraisal for preciseness, or do you need a second opinion without the charge and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? Zerkel Appraisals offers field reviews where we go out and check the subject and comparables in question. Or, if you're in a rush, we can provide desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files.

Need a retrospective review of an appraisal? We can help with that too. While typically requested by banks, you may wish to exercise this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your property.