Appraisal services for Galena and Jo Daviess County homeowners

Check out the top reasons Illinois homeowners hire Homestead Appraisals, Ltd.:

Pre-listing appraisals (whether you're using an agent or selling the home on your own)
Challenge a property tax assessment
Remove PMI to cut their monthly mortgage payment
Reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)
Review a different appraiser's report for verification
If property needs to be divided because of a divorce
To settle an estate in Illinois by determining the true market value of the property in question


	Need help deciding the price of your house in or near Galena, Illinois? Contact Homestead Appraisals, Ltd..

At Homestead Appraisals, Ltd., we understand the individual needs of a customer after appraisal services. Our business practices and reporting formats are familiar to our business clients like banks, attorneys, and CPAs. But as a general consumer, we will provide you with extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to better understand what we do and how we present the results of our analysis.

For-Sale-by-Owner (FSBO) / Pre-Listing Services

It's very hard to be objective about your house because of your emotional attachment to it. A professional appraiser is objective and will tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. A professional appraisal is very valuable as a negotiating tool once you have an interested buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your home will attract many interested buyers. It's something concrete to show your buyer. An appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your property's value -- not just how much you think your home is worth. Interested buyers assume that you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be far more likely to give credibility to an experienced appraiser's value estimation than yours.

Challenge Tax Assessment

Your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued if you live in an area that's going down or is not appreciating as much as other homes close by. That means you're going to pay more taxes than you should. The faster you take care of things like this, the better, since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period. When challenging your property tax assessment, getting an appraisal report from Homestead Appraisals, Ltd. is your strongest weapon.

Appraisals to cancel PMI

A fashionable money saver for homeowners is to get the PMI canceled from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". Once your mortgage loan amount is down below 80% of the value of your property, in most cases you can apply to your lender to have the PMI canceled from your loan, which will make your monthly payments go down. Homestead Appraisals, Ltd. is qualified in helping homeowners just like you do away with unneeded and unwanted PMI insurance.

HELOC recently frozen?

Even if your specific property has not declined in value, your lender just might choose to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your home is near a declining area. This can be unfavorable to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also inopportune from a cash flow viewpoint. Homestead Appraisals, Ltd. can help you reinstate your home equity line of credit with efficient appraisal.

Need Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services?

Have you just been handed a copy of your appraisal and you would wish to have a professional double-check it for efficiency or do you want a second opinion without the added cost and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? Homestead Appraisals, Ltd. offers field reviews where we'll go out and check the subject and comparables in question. If you need it ASAP, we'll provide desk review and verify as many facts as we can, using online data sources as well as our own files.

We can also provide you with a retrospective review of any appraisal you may have had in the past. While usually requested by banks, you may wish to take advantage of this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your home.