How long does an appraisal take?

The short answer is … it depends! It depends on what kind of appraisal is needed, and what depth of inspection. Some lenders or trust officers, or estate appraisals may only require a drive-by appraisal on a short form. Others require pages and pages of reports, or even a written narrative about the property.

Once the appraisal is ordered, and we receive the official order in our office, a staff member at Schuylkill Appraisal Services will call the property owner immediately to schedule an appointment. Depending on how busy we are, and how easy it is to see the home, we try to get you on our books no later than 24-48 hours after the appraisal has been ordered. We then do our preliminary homework, pulling county courthouse records and prior sale data.

Once we are at the property, the physical inspection can take from 30 minutes to several hours, depending upon the size and complexity involved.

After the appraiser leaves the property, he or she spends time touring through the neighborhood to get a feel for the area. The appraiser will have searched for comparable sales (other properties that are similar to the property being appraised) that have sold within the last six to 12 months or so, and will want to drive past all comparable sales if possible.

When the field work is finished, the appraiser returns to our Pottsville real estate office to complete the report. The final report may be a short form report (usually 10 pages or less), a “regular” report of 10-30 pages, or even a long narrative report which can sometimes exceed 100 pages. The longer the report ordered, the longer it takes to analyze the data and complete the paperwork. The appraiser usually completes the short form or regular report in 24-48 hours and sends it back to the client. A narrative report can take weeks or sometimes even months, depending upon the complexity of the assignment.

Here at Schuylkill Appraisal Services, we complete most appraisal orders in 48-72 hours from time of the inspection, which means most of our work is turned in to the client less than a week after the initial order is placed.