What is an appraisal?

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Jeff Thomas
Mortgage Advisor, Family Lender
www.lendingsolutions.net  
703-830-9808

Jeff Thomas is a Mortgage Advisor and Financial Educator with Family Lender, Inc. located in Fairfax, Virginia. Jeff has seen the mortgage business change significantly in the 15 years he has been in the business. Changes such zero down loans, to relaxed underwriting guidelines to borrowing more than the house is actually worth on a purchase or refinance transaction. 

With the changes in the mortgage industry, Jeff has had to make changes in the way he performs his job. Jeff originally thought he was a loan originator, but after realizing the positive impact he could have on other peoples lives he made some basic adjustments to his business and now sees his position and career as a financial educator.

By taking the time upfront to get to know the people he serves, Jeff has been able to positively impact and improve the lives of the people he works with by providing relevant and timely advice. . This assistance comes in many forms, from insurance to painting to helping interview the right retirement professional. This core group of professionals allows Jeff to concentrate on providing the right advice for each person he works with.

Jeff is one of 200 people in the country that is both a Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist – CMPS and a Certified Liability Advisor – CLA. Jeff recently co-authored a book with Todd Ballinger, called “Borrow Smart Retire Rich”.  The principles addressed in the book will be covered throughout the video. 

Jeff hopes you gain insight on how to purchase and finance a home and hopefully you will find your time well spent and walk away with some information you did not know before.  Jeff Thomas, Where Advice Does Make A Difference!

 

What is an appraisal?

In this video, mortgage advisor, Jeff Thomas describes how to purchase your first home and the process you must go through to obtain a mortgage. This video is designed for first time homebuyers and also provides valuable information to indivduals who have purchased a home in the past. This video includes an overview of the four parts of a loan file, mortgage jargon, the loan process, house hunting, the types of mortgages available and the 7 steps on how to manage your mortgage correctly.

This expert: 40,471 views

This series: 10,847 views

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Mortgage

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House

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Purchasing

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Buying

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Credit

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Payment

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Host: What is an appraisal?

Jeff Thomas: Appraisal is done by a disinterested third party that's either ordered by the loan officer or by the mortgage company or with a VA loan, by the Veteran's Administration. It could be ordered by the actual lender and what it does, is it goes out and the appraiser does a couple of different things.

The first thing he does, is they make sure that there is actually a property there, that sounds kind of funny, but that's what they do, they make sure there is a property there, they review the property to make sure to the house is in livable condition and then they make sure that you are not paying too much for the house. They are going to review what they call comparables, which are recent sales in that neighborhood or as close to that neighbor as they can possibly get, to make sure that you are buying a house for a 100 that is not worth 50, because you don't want to overpay for the house. Because the lender is only going to lend you the sales price or the appraised value or whichever one is less. So, if that the sales price is a 100,000 they are only going to lend you a 100,000. If the appraisal comes in at a 100, then you are fine. If the appraisal comes in at a 101,000 well then you are still fine; but if it comes in at 99,000 well then that gives you the ability to go back to your seller and either renegotiate to a lower price, opt out of the contract or if you really like the house and you can't renegotiate the contract, you can bring that extra $1000 to close in.

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