Appraisal services for Orange and Orange County homeowners

The top 7 reasons why CA homeowners hire Maria Storti:

To get a pre-listing appraisal (whether they're selling the home themselves or using a real estate agent)
Challenge a property tax assessment
To lower their mortgage payment by removing PMI
Reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
Review a different appraiser's report for verification
In the case of a CA divorce, where property needs to be divided
Determine the true market value of property in question to settle an estate in Orange county or CA

Do you own a home in or near Orange? Do you need help deciding the value of your real estate?
Contact Maria Storti.

At Maria Storti, we understand the special needs of a consumer seeking appraisal services. While our typical clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get an extra level of customer service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them.

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

Since you have an emotional attachment to your home, it's often very hard to be objective about it. Our professional appraisers at Maria Storti are objective. We won't just tell you what you want to hear, we will tell you what you need to know. In addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your property will attract many interested buyers, a professional appraisal is very important as a negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer. It gives you something tangible to show the buyer. An appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your property's value -- not just you saying how much your house is worth. Potential buyers assume you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be much more likely to give credibility to a professional appraiser's value assessment than yours.

Need to cancel PMI?

PMI stands for Private Mortgage Insurance. A fashionable way to cut costs for homeowners is to get the PMI eliminated from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. Once your mortgage loan amount is less than 80% of the value of your property, in most cases you can apply to a lender to have the PMI eliminated from your loan, which will make your monthly payments go down. We're qualified in helping consumers just like you abolish unwanted and unneeded PMI insurance.

Challenging a property tax assessment

If you live in an area that is going down or not appreciating as much as other houses nearby, your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued. That means you are paying more taxes than you should. The quicker you take care of things like this, the better, since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period. An appraisal from Maria Storti is your number one weapon when contesting your property tax assessment.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender just may decide to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your property is in or near a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can this be disadvantageous from a cash flow angle, and harmful to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. Maria Storti can provide you with an expert appraisal to help you reinstate your HELOC.

We Also Offer Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Have you just received a copy of your appraisal and you'd like to have a professional double-check it for verity or do you want a second opinion without the added expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? We can go out and check the subject and comparables in question in a field review. If you're in a rush, we'll provide desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files.

Need a retrospective review of an appraisal report? We can help you with that Even though this is typically requested by banks, you may need to exercise this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your home.