How long should an appraiser look at a house?

[The Argus]

This is another bone of contention that I have with the AMC. The appraiser is from Aptos which is about an hour away from my home. I did not realize this until after I got the report and saw his address. When I first raised this issue with the AMC, they said that Aptos was sufficiently close and that the appraiser was familiar with my area. I responded that I disagreed, and questioned why they could not find a local appraiser who knew the local market better, especially since I live in the middle of the biggest city in Northern California.

It would be interesting to find out how much you paid for the appraisal and how much of that fee was paid to the person who appraised your house.

Answering your original question, a house similar in size to yours normally takes me about 30-45 mins to inspect.

I hope you get some resolution for this situation. It's not just appraisers who get screwed by AMCs, the home owners get it too. Andy Boy really has done a great job of demolishing this profession. Appraisers are guardians of the public trust. Now many of them are very low paid-guardians of the public trust.

 

[Winds]

I have heard many times, "I can't believe how long this takes. The other appraisers were in and out in less than five minutes." I've also heard, "You actually pull back the shower curtain to see whats in there?"
To which I always comment something like, "Yup, I'm required to look in there." or "I can't imagine doing any less during my inspection. I have to know this house."

 

[daniellemcobb]

vacant crackerbox....15 min or so. Fort Rich....3 or 4 hours Chicken Farm..ditto if not Biosecure....45 min if it is (i.e.- no admittance) Homeowner that follows me around about 18" behind my back and pointing out great features like the built in ironing board and the cat ractrack along the wall...fast as I can write and photo...

Ahh man, you crack me up!! SOOO TRUE! You also forgot to add if you are worried about your safety or catching sometime of infection or disease due to the property's cleanliness! HA! In those cases, forget your notes, take enough pictures you won't need to take notes! HAHA!

-D

 

[Deleted member 128537]

Depending upon the efficiency of the appraiser, and if the home is in pretty good condition that home would take about 20 to 25 minutes. Ranches are easy to measure and inspect. Some appraisers measure all the rooms and sketch them in. Not required and takes more time. Also not required. They just need to be functionally good sized rooms. I can measure a ranch with a laser measurer in 5 minutes or less. That means walking into each of the rooms and doing a basic look around the room and snapping a photo, and then taking notes on my PDA which are preset. Also then you want to walk around the house and look for foundation issues or siding issues. A 6,000 sq' lot is small and easy to inspect. Need to look into crawl space or basement looking for any infestations or water. 20 to 25 minutes easy. DON'T follow the appraiser around. It is distracting, and if most appraisers are like me I have a system down from the time I enter the property to the time I leave. When you interrupt an appraiser you screw up his/her thought processes. If there is anything that you need pointed out talk to him/her before or after the inspection, but not during; unless he/she asks a question.

 

[Delta85]

My average time for an average home is about 20 minutes. As others have stated we are not building inspectors, we are just checking basic condition, noting any improvements or depreciation, getting the room layout, some photos, and some measurements.

For larger or more complex properties obviously the process can run longer. 30-60 minutes is probably the longest range for me that I can remember.

And these numbers don't include BS'ing with the homeowner or realtor or asking/answering questions. I'm talking real inspection time. Factor in the jibber jabber factor and a 20 minute inspection can run 30-45 minutes.

 

[LACKLAND27]

I have heard many times, "I can't believe how long this takes. The other appraisers were in and out in less than five minutes." I've also heard, "You actually pull back the shower curtain to see whats in there?" To which I always comment something like, "Yup, I'm required to look in there." or "I can't imagine doing any less during my inspection. I have to know this house."

That part can gross you out in some homes. I lost count how many times the wall with the spout had missing tiles and or plastic over it.

My photos almost always show that view of the tub. (whenever possible).

 

[prasercat]

I have heard many times, "I can't believe how long this takes. The other appraisers were in and out in less than five minutes." I've also heard, "You actually pull back the shower curtain to see whats in there?"
To which I always comment something like, "Yup, I'm required to look in there." or "I can't imagine doing any less during my inspection. I have to know this house."

This may be due to the markets you serve, the local culture or maybe you are not establishing rapport with the homeowner. I have not ever had someone say that to me; however, they may have said "I didn't expect it to take this long". Now I tell them a estimated range of time based upon what I know about the house when scheduling the inspection, so they know what to expect.

 

[Lobo Fan]

I had one last week that took me 2 hours, most of that measuring. 4900 SF single story with 58 corners and three torreons or round turrets. I had a satellite shot and it still took forever as many of the curves and angles were hidden under patio covers. It took me another 2-1/2 hours to get the sketch right.

Nice fancy custom house with lots of features so I took a lot of photos. A more typical in and out would be a vacant house with no crawl space or attic.

RELS just put out a memo stating that we should invite the HO to follow us around and point out all the $2.00 switches, etc. Mostly it was to keep the complaints about stolen property and damage to a minimum.

My favorites are still vacant on lock box.

 

[prasercat]

I had one last week that took me 2 hours, most of that measuring. 4900 SF single story with 58 corners and three torreons or round turrets. I had a satellite shot and it still took forever as many of the curves and angles were hidden under patio covers. It took me another 2-1/2 hours to get the sketch right.
.

I feel your pain. The tough one's often have three or more levels each having their own footprint, many wall lines and things can be easily missed or hidden and then one is screwed trying to make the sketches match up or make sense (I always overlay the complex ones to see if they make sense). Another complicating factor is odd angles (those not 90 or 45 degree), so I purchased an angle device years ago (like a large protractor) to get those angles right, which really helps make everything fall together on the sketch.

Round walls are the toughest. I do the patios and decks, etc, and when they are custom round or flowing shapes, it can take a whole bunch of measurements to translate and then there is the sketch time. I find it's better to make redundant or extra measurements as they more than pay for themselves in time spent with the sketch program.