You need an appraisal of your Lake Lanier property. Where do you start?
Like most people, you may begin your search online or ask your Realtor, friends, or other professionals for a referral. You may find an Appraiser who has years of general appraisal experience and assume that experience is enough.
When it comes to Lake Lanier property, it may not be.
Lake Lanier is a unique and highly specialized real estate market. An Appraiser can have extensive experience appraising residential property but still lack the specific knowledge necessary to accurately analyze and value a Lake Lanier property.
At Pendley & Pendley Appraisers, our experience has shown us that one of the greatest risks when selecting an Appraiser without extensive Lake Lanier experience is an underestimation of lakefront property value.
Why?
When appraising a typical home, the house itself may be the primary focus of the analysis. With Lake Lanier property, the lot and its relationship to the lake can have an enormous impact on value.
Understanding the value of a Lake Lanier lot requires much more than simply looking at the size of the property. An appraiser needs to understand the characteristics that make one lake lot significantly more desirable—and valuable—than another.
If the lot is not analyzed correctly, the entire appraisal can be affected.
An Appraiser who is unfamiliar with the Lake Lanier market may be overly conservative when determining land value simply because they do not have enough experience to recognize the differences between lakefront properties.
That is why Lake Lanier appraisal experience matters.
Read our previous article: What Adds Value to a Lake Lanier Home?
When selecting a Lake Lanier Appraiser, don't be afraid to ask specific questions.
Rather than simply asking, "Do you appraise Lake Lanier property?", ask:
"How many Lake Lanier appraisals have you completed in the past six months?"
Or:
"How many Lake Lanier properties do you appraise in a typical week?"
There is a significant difference between an Appraiser who has completed a handful of Lake Lanier appraisals and one who works with Lake Lanier properties every week throughout the year.
You can also ask questions that help determine whether the Appraiser truly works in the Lake Lanier market.
For example:
What is full summer pool on Lake Lanier? Answer: 1,071 feet.
What is considered the flood level? Answer: 1,085 feet.
How many boat dock permits does the Corps of Engineers allow on Lake Lanier? Answer: 10,615 permits.
Are additional dock permits currently available? No
How many miles of shoreline does Lake Lanier have? Approximately 692 miles How many Counties does Lake Lanier Cover? Answer: 5; Hall, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Dawson and Lumpkin
These are not questions that, by themselves, determine whether someone is a qualified Appraiser. However, they can be useful indicators of whether an Appraiser is actively and extensively involved in the Lake Lanier market or has only occasional experience with lake property.
Lake Lanier properties can vary dramatically in value even when the homes themselves are similar.
Two houses with comparable square footage, construction quality, and amenities can have substantially different values because of differences in their lake lots, shoreline, views, water access, topography, dock characteristics, and location on the lake.
That is why choosing an Appraiser based solely on general appraisal experience—or simply selecting the first Appraiser who says they "do Lake Lanier"—may not give you the level of market expertise your property deserves.
Before hiring an appraiser, do your due diligence.
Ask about their actual Lake Lanier experience. Ask how frequently they perform Lake Lanier appraisals. Ask how familiar they are with the Corps of Engineers' requirements and the unique characteristics of Lake Lanier property.
At Pendley & Pendley Appraisers, Lake Lanier is not an occasional part of our business.
We conduct Lake Lanier appraisals every week of the year.
Our extensive experience with Lake Lanier property gives us an in-depth understanding of the lake's unique real estate market and the many factors that influence the value of lakefront property.
If you are considering an appraisal for a Lake Lanier home, lot, estate, divorce, tax matter, estate planning, refinancing, litigation, or a potential sale, experience on the lake matters.
Don't simply ask whether an appraiser has some Lake Lanier experience.
Ask how much.
And when you need an experienced Lake Lanier appraiser, consider Pendley & Pendley Appraisers—where Lake Lanier appraisal experience is what we do, every week of the year.