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Name: Shane Trotta
Company: Trotta Appraisal & Consulting / Floor Plan Online
E-mail: Contact Shane Trotta (Trotta Appraisal & Consulting / Floor Plan Online)
Website: http://www.trottaappraisal.com
Office Phone: (203) 453-9805
Cell Phone: (203) 605-2658
Alt. Phone: (203) 453-2737
Fax: (203) 453-9805
Address: 96 Briarwood Drive, Guilford, CT, 06437
Description: Certified Appraiser and licensed sales Agent. Appraisal Firm with over 15 years experience. FloorPlanOnline interactive floor plan Virtual Tours Service Provider; the most innovative marketing tool!!!

About Us:

Trotta Appraisal & Consulting, LLC has been in ResidentialReal Estate Appraisal for over 15 years. We have extensive knowledge and experience in the various housing found throughout Connecticut and New England, including Waterfront, Vintage/Antique dwellings, Custom New Construction, and everything in between. We provide appraisals for Attorneys (Foreclosure, Divorce, Estate Settlement), Banks and Lenders (Refinance, Purchases, and Appraisal Reviews for accuracy and competence), and Homeowners (setting listing price, Tax Appeals and PMI removal). We have the knowledge and experience to adequately serve all of your appraisal needs! Visit us at www.trottaapraisal.com and learn more about us!

Areas of Expertise

Our services include Single Family dwellings (with extensive knowledge and experience in new construction and Relocation Appraisals - ERC), 2-4 unit dwellings, Condominiums and PUDs, as well as Vacant Land. We have vast experience with unique properties including waterfront properties, vintage/antique dwellings, log houses, and complex properties. We have a certified general appraiser to cover all your commercial needs as well. We perform appraisal reviews on all residential properties, and offer real estate consulting services to cover a vast array of needs. We are FHA approved.

Trotta Appraisal & Consulting performs appraisals for a variety of clients including lenders for mortgage finance transactions, attorneys for foreclosure , divorce, and estate settlement, private individuals (including investors) in regards to proposed home improvements, PMI removal, tax appeal appraisals , relocation companies, and many more. All of our clients have different needs, but everyone receives high quality reports in a timely fashion with superior professional service!

Waterfront Real Estate, and the Appraisal of Waterfront Real Estate are extremely unique products which require absolute attention to detail and the knowledge of each individual waterfront neighborhood. Waterfront neighborhoods throughout the Connecticut shoreline are each unique to themselves and all have their own area attractions, tax structures, and periodical history; extensive knowledge of these markets is priceless. Being located in Guilford, on the Connecticut shoreline, both John and Shane Trotta have spent their entire lifetime along the CT shoreline and retain all the knowledge necessary to provide the highest quality Waterfront Appraisal products. The New Haven County shoreline through Middlesex County shoreline are our specialty.

When choosing an appraiser for your waterfront real estate, it is in everyone's best interest to have an appraiser with the most knowledge about the nuances of shoreline properties, and the shoreline neighborhoods they are located in. Feel confident in your choice to use Trotta Appraisal & Consulting, LLC for all of your Waterfront Appraisals and Appraisal Reviews. Please call us to discuss details regarding your Waterfront appraisal needs!

An Appraisal Review is the act or process of developing and communicating an opinion about the quality of all or part of the work of another appraiser that was performed as part of an appraisal, appraisal review, or appraisal consulting assignment. The reviewer will make an opinion on the completeness, adequacy, relevance, appropriateness, and reasonableness of the work under review, in accordance with the requirements applicable to that work (from USPAP).

Competent reviews are necessary to ensure lenders and all clients of professional appraisal reports are being provided with the highest quality appraisal reports, and are not being misled or involved in fraud due to the appraisals they are relying on. Trotta Appraisal & Consulting, LLC offers professional, objective, and ethical appraisal reviews to ensure decisions are being made based on quality appraisal work. Appraisal reviews are performed in association with lending decisions for mortgage finance transactions, as well as reviewing work being offered to attorneys in association with divorce and estate setttlement. Our experience and knowledge of our market area means we will provide quality reviews for all of you appraisal review needs.

Appraisal of New Construction requires the knowledge and experience necessary to adequately value New Construction and understand the process of New Construction. The ability to read and understand blueprints, and to decipher quality of construction from the information available prior to physical construction is imperative to providing a quality appraisal report for New Construction.

John F. Trotta, owner and appraiser, comes from a backround including many aspects of residential / commercial construction, insurance adjusting, and real estate sales and appraisal of new construction. His backround lends itself to quality reviews of blueprints, and understanding the process associated with new Construction projects. Hiring the most competent appraisers ensure the highest quality of appraisal reports.

PMI:

PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) is required from a borrower when they do not put 20% or more down on a purchase of a house. PMI is protection for the lender against the costs of foreclosure. Mortgage insurance is provided by private mortgage insurance companies, and allows lenders to lend in circumstances they generally would not (more than 80% of the properties market value). Although no one likes paying their PMI each month, it allows many people the opportunity to purchase a house without a large cash down payment.

The cost of PMI fluctuates with each individual case, and it is relative to your down payment, and the overall loan amount. For example, the cost of PMI is greater for a 5% down payment as opposed to a 10% down payment, and the cost of PMI is more on a $200,000 mortgage than a $100,000 mortgage. The cost is generally in addition to your monthly principal & interest payment.

PMI is handled differently by all lenders and the terms agreed upon in your agreement with them. The decision to cancel PMI will be based upon the lender's guidelines. In general, lender's will cancel PMI when the equity in the house reaches 75-80%; but also depends on time period since the purchase, as some lenders require 1-2 years PMI payments before they will consider terminating your PMI. Some may allow you to remove PMI prior to the time period if significant upgrades/repairs, etc. have been performed on the property. Your first step in removing your PMI is contacting your current lender and getting all the terms in writing. Once you have read and determined the feasability of removing your PMI it is time to get a professional, independent appraisal performed on the property to obtain a professional opinon of market value. The appraisal will be sent directly to the lender and they will make their decision based upon the results of that appraisal.

This is a basic guideline provided to help you better understand the basics of PMI; all final documentation regarding the specifics of your specific situation must be obtained from your specific lender. Please feel free to call us about any questions you have or to discuss the appraisal process further. The cost of your appraisal will generally pay for itself in 1-3 months, and save you money every month thereafter!

Divorce Appraisals:

Dealing with all the issues involved throughout a divorce can be one of the most stressful and emotional times in anybody's life. One of the biggest assets that will have to be decided is most likely going to be your home. Basically there are two options; 1) The house can be sold on the open market and the proceeds from the sale can be split between the parties involved, or 2) One party can buy the house at fair market value from the other party. If option 2 is the choice you have made, the appraisal is the most important step in this procedure. This decision should not be taken lightly and the appraiser you choose should have the knowledge and experience for this type of work and experience of court testimony to professionally defend their work in court if need be. Trotta Appraisal & Consulting, LLC has been involved in numerous such cases and has the knowledge and experience to accurately value your home and defend our work, if necessary.

Some clients in this situation will be looking to get either a "low value" or "high value" appraisal, however, any appraiser who does manipulate the numbers to hit a targeted value will have to be able to defend their work in court. A discredited appaiser and appraisal will only waste a lot of your money, it is in your best interest to hire an experienced, ethical appraiser who will be able to defend all of their work, analyses, and conclusions.

Please, call us to discuss your situation; we will be happy to explain the process, forward you our resumes, and provide you with the highest quality appraisal, and you can feel relief about one step in this process.

REO / Foreclosure:

Foreclosure and REO properties are generally tough and unique appraisal problems due to the condition of the property being appraised. For the most part, these properties have experienced lack of maintenance if not intentional damage to the dwelling. Vacant properties experience atypical damage when pipes burst, mold forms, and various other problems occur. Every problem in the dwelling presents a problem to any potential buyer, and therefore, problems to the appraiser. Estimating costs to repair is a difficult task and knowing the problems that can be caused beyond what is visibly present is only learned through experience. John Trotta's long backround in Real Estate, construction, and investing lends itself to proper valuations of these properties. Proper valuation of your REO property can assist you greatly in your disposal of the property.

Tax Appeal Appraisals:

When your town appraises your house they provide a market value based on a "mass appraisal" which has been performed throughout your entire town over a certain period. In general, these valuations lack the extensive work that will go into a private appraisal from a professional real estate appraisal firm. Sometimes the mass appraisals can be fairly accurate, other times very large discrepencies can be found between what the town comes up with for a value and what a personal appraisal may find. If you believe your estimated market value from the town is inaccurate, it is in your best interest to appeal your tax evaluation.

When appealing your taxes you have two options for the informal and formal hearings:

1) You can choose to gather all of your own information and present your case, or;

2) You can hire a state licensed appraiser to perform an appraisal of your property. You will bring a copy of the appraisal report to present to the board. All pertinent information is gathered, analysed and presented in a structured report for the board to review. The appraiser is not required by the town to show up with you to the hearing, however, this is always an option for you to consider. We can discuss your personal needs with you regarding representation.

If they decide not to agree with your appeal from the meetings, you may choose to pursue the case beyond the town to the Superior Court, an appraisal is highly recommended, and the appraiser may more likely need to accompany you. Legal representation is also recommended.

Trotta Appraisal & Consulting has been an established Real Estate Appraisal firm in Connecticut for over 15 years. Choosing a professional firm will give you the best advantage of getting the most accurate valuation estimate of your property. The fee of a professionally prepared appraisal is minimal compared to the possible savings on taxes until the next revaluation. Please contact us so we can discuss any of your concerns regarding the tax appeal process, and your personal situation!

Virtual Tours

In addition to Appraisal services, I have been providing high quality photos and floor plan renderings for http://www.floorplanonline.com/. They are the provider of the the newest, most innovative virtual tours where they provide online virtual floor plans. Real Estate agents can offer this great marketing technique to their clients and let them know that they are at the cutting edge of marketing! Visit their website to view samples.

An excerpt from their site:

Use FloorPlanOnline to GET MORE LISTINGS, MAKE MONEY & SAVE TIME!
It's no secret that print advertising is being eclipsed by Internet advertising, and for good reason..It's simply more effective and less expensive! Not only is it the Internet the preferred method where buyers look for homes, but it's also where they look for agents. Unlike print, Internet advertising is not a one time expense. It's an investment which can be leveraged to get more listings, attract more buyers, and sell homes faster.

With the FloorPlanOnline Marketing System, we can GET you More Listings and Make you More Money. Here's the Top 10 ways how.

Get the listing every time. The more listings you have, the more you make. Our agents that showcase the FloorPlanOnline system at listing appointments typically walk away with the listing, in many cases, 100% of the time!
- Get a laptop computer with Microsoft PowerPoint (it comes with the Microsoft Small Business Suite software)
- Download to your computer either the FREE demo house tour you get just by registering or use a tour we have already done for you. Just login to your FloorPlanOnline.com account, go to Manage Orders, then click the view link under Marketing Materials and select Save Tour to PC/Burn CD.
- Download our Listing Presentation (click here) and customize it. You can link the offline tour into the PowerPoint presentation as shown. Add or delete slides not needed. NOTE: If you do not have PowerPoint, click here and you can download a free PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft. You should be able to view and then print out slides as need and use the paper version (but not edit slides that need editing).
- Play the presentation at your listing appointment - after all - if all the buyers are online, shouldn't you show your sellers you are too?
- Consider using a "Menu of Services" approach to help you manage commission erosion (i.e., show your 3 levels of commission with what services the seller gets for each level, with the FPO presentation being at the highest level!! It works!)
Utilize "See Interactive FloorPlan" in all your marketing venues. We know from experience that people are intrigued by this term and that your use of this term throughout all your advertising and marketing will help drive traffic to your websites. Then, once you've got them there, the FloorPlanOnline concept will keep them there longer. And, isn't it your experience that, "The longer they are there (whether physically or virtually), the more comfortable they become with the notion that this might be the right property for them!"?
Anytime Virtual Showings. Link your tour to as many places as possible - Realtor.com, the MLS, your company websites, Craigslist, etc. We even do some of the work for you. The more buyers and agents that see it, the quicker the property will sell! The Interactive FloorPlan tour provides compelling content that EVERY buyer wants to see. After all, what is the buyer buying the floorplan layout shows them HOW they could live in the property vs just a bunch of spinning photos, which shows them how someone has lived in it. Buyers will be attracted to your listing, your website, and YOU. A great opportunity for double ending a transaction or obtaining a referral commission (where applicable).
Email the Tour - Use the Email Tour feature to send the unbranded tour to a database of showing agents whom you want to see your listings. Have the seller send the branded version to their sphere of influence asking them to help sell their home by forwarding it to anyone they feel might be interested in seeing their home. And, send the branded version to the buyer after the closing congratulating them on their purchase and suggesting that they forward it to all their acquaintances so they can also share in the joy they are experiencing. Each tour has an email tour button. Click it and copy and paste your email addresses into the "To:" field on the form.
Flyer Creation and Printing. Our new Enhanced Flyer Templates allow you to add a creative touch to simply and quickly create stunning property flyers. Print them yourself or use an online printer.
Neighborhood "guerilla" marketing. Use the Offline Tour and burn copies of the tour to CDs. Distribute it to neighbors of the seller (or have the seller do this). Also, give extra copies to the seller to distribute to at least 25 people they know. Chances are they may have friends that want to move right in! You can even create a self promotion tour and use that for mailbox campaigns.
Buy a Vanity Domain Name. Create a truly custom website for the property with the tour link as the property address. For example, http://www.25716se27thstreet.com/ goes to a virtual tour! With the street address as the name of the tour, it will also be easier to find via search engines. Just go to Manage Orders, then click the view link under Tour Upgrades to buy a Vanity Domain. $20 per listing. Good for 1 year.
Be the local expert. Create a Basic (do it yourself) area tour and add it to your listings under the More Info section on each order from. You can also put separate links to your areas tours on your website. Whether you create a simple photo tour or a more detailed Interactive FloorPlan tour with a plat map, subdivision map or area map, it is a great way to showcase an area. Add a vanity domain to make it really pop! Like http://www.oxfordct.info/. Get your chamber of commerce to use it for their business too!
Feature Your Listings. Each account comes with a Featured Listing Page that has all of your approved tours on them. Add this page to your website and email tagline (like Click here for my current listings). You can even buy a vanity domain, such as http://www.hometeamct.info/, to make your Featured Listing page a mini website of you!
Open House Tools. Bring your laptop to the Open House and have the tour playing. Print off Flyers and FloorPlans and burn the tours to CDs for those that visit the property. They make great handouts, it is inexpensive marketing for you and will make a very positive impression on everyone. Remember - the Internet, referrals, yard signs and open houses are the primary means for getting new clients!
Bonus Tip...Closing Gifts. Give a lasting memory to the buyer and seller by burning the tour to a CD. Oh, it also gets your name and number in front of them...