Mary's Blog

  Would you like to REDUCE the number of times your sellers homes appraise lower than the Contract Price? Get a Pre-Listing or Current Listing Appraisal! Why? Because you can and should provide a copy of this appraisal to the BANKS's appraiser. Not only will that appraiser be happy to have a prio...

Do you know the TRUE heated Square footage of the home you have Listed? It makes a difference! Do not rely on Courthouse Records! If you or your clients live in Hall, Gwinnett or Forsyth Counties in GA and want a professional sketch of a home for marketing purposes we can do that for you! Samples...

Since most of us in the Atlanta area have been house bound due to the snow and ice event it is a great time to do a little Business and Marketing "House Cleaning" and set your marketing plans for 2014.    My plan it to increase more Realtor Referral and personal appraisal business and rely less o...

  Happy New Year everyone! Just wanted you to know that we have changed the name of our Company from Mary Thompson Appraisals to Lanier Appraisal Service. Please make a note of it and our website address which is : http://www.lanierappraisalservice.com If you forget, just Google "Lake Lanier App...

Jeff Gill of the Gainesville Times in Gainesville, GA called and wanted to know how things were going with Lake Lanier Homes values. He knew we specialized in Lake Lanier Appraisals. So as it turned out I had an appraisal to be done on a nice Lake Lanier Home and he along with their photographer ...

I think I wrote about this before, but had to do it again....Just saw a listing that included the infamous words...Priced to Sell! Really? I thought that was the POINT....Market the home to Sell it!  In this case the home did sell quickly - 32 days on Lake Lanier. But most of the time when I see ...

  I feel blessed today. I found out per a recent poll that almost 70% of Appraisers workload comes from AMC's (Appraisal Management Companies). I am blessed because more than 90% of our business comes from Lenders or Personal requests for appraisals. Such as Pre-Listing or Pre-Sale appraisals.  W...

We have seen alot of new construction in our area and that is fantastic. There has been such a lack of supply and therefore a high demand for new homes, that the frenzie is causing a problem when it comes to Appraisals I am finding that lately buyers are OVER UPGRADING their homes, more than the ...

Now that I have your attention. Please include the Builder's HEATED Square footage  which is ABOVE GRADE (not including Basement HEATED square footage) in the section on your MLS/FMLS listings where it asks for Square footage. This will save you from many phone calls from the Appraiser asking for...

Please pass this around to every Realtor you know as it can save everyone from having New Construction Homes coming in UNDER value on an appraisal. Appraisers have been directed by many lenders, who of course take their cues from Fannie and Freddie, that we MUST have at least a few sales, pending...