Houston Commercial Appraisers

Commercial real estate appraisers

Free Quote: (713) 766-3674

El Dorado/Oates Prairie's #1 choice for commercial real estate appraisals

So you need a commercial property appraised for your own private use – you’re selling or buying, or have some legal, or tax-related situation.

Here’s the most important thing you need to be aware of…

The real estate appraisal industry was NOT created with your needs in mind.

In reality, the appraisal industry was created to serve banks – to fulfill the appraisal needs of their mortgage-loan selling operations.

As a result, the appraisal industry is mostly comprised of ‘institutional’ appraisers – these are independent appraisers and appraisal firms who mostly do mortgage appraisals for big institutions like banks.

But that won’t stop them from occasionally taking on a private client like you, if you stumble upon their website and want to give them your money.

After all, what business doesn’t want more money?

In fact, at least 95% of appraisers today primarily serve banks (including most of the appraisers you’ll find when searching online) and less than 5% primarily serve private individuals like you.

We’re part of the 5% that exclusively serve individual private clients like you.

Why should you care?

You see, the appraisal industry has some shocking common practices and loopholes built into it that are business-as-usual to ‘insiders’ but totally unknown to most of the general public.

These appraisal practices and loopholes work well for banks but can can have disastrous consequences for an individual like you.

Further down on this page, you can read more about these ‘insider secrets’ in greater detail.

But for now, just remember that banks make money by selling as many mortgage loans as possible, as quickly and cheaply as they can.

The bottom line?

‘Institutional’ appraisers are constantly pushed to prioritize speed and cost over thoroughness and accuracy – habits that inevitably result in low quality, unreliable appraisals.

(And remember, banks protect themselves from bad appraisals by often lending only 60 – 80% of the appraised value on commercial properties.)

Why not give us a call today?

You’ll find out what you need to know and get answers to your questions, no obligation.

Call now for a FREE quote:
(tap here to call on a mobile)
(713) 766-3674

Give us a call—it’s the easiest way to get answers to your questions including info on appraisal pricing and timing. So why not give us a call now—during normal business hours, we always answer.


You may wonder why it’s so important to avoid hiring an ‘institutional’ appraiser, well…

Here are 3 Big Reasons Why this Matters to You

#1
We are not an ‘appraisal-factory’ for banks and mortgage companies

Since most appraisers (more than 95%)—from the local solo operator to the big national firm—rely on banks and mortgage companies for most of their appraisal orders, these institutions naturally become their most important clients.

This is bad for you for at least two reasons:

  1. Because these appraisal firms consistently get dozens of orders every month from each institutional client, your business frankly means very little to them—as a result, you can expect poor service (unreturned phone calls, missed deadlines, and an unreliable appraisal).
  2. And because these appraisal firms do most of their work for [1] banks who can afford to sacrifice quality and accuracy for an ultra-fast turnaround at a rock-bottom price, they have no choice but to become an assembly-line-like factory producing low quality, often inaccurate appraisals.

To maintain our service and quality standards, as well as our independence, we avoid working with institutional clients such as banks and mortgage companies.

Instead, we prefer to service individual private clients like you, as well as a host of legal, financial, and tax professionals and their individual clients.

As a result, most appraisals we do are used for a variety of personal, legal, or tax-related issues, rather than mortgage financing. That’s why we have better familiarity with your needs and situation.

Also, we haven’t developed the bad habits that come from constantly prioritizing speed and cost over thoroughness and accuracy—habits that inevitably result in low quality, unreliable appraisals.

[1] You would think that banks and other mortgage lenders would care deeply about the appraisal being accurate.

The truth is they have no real motivation to care about accuracy, and here’s why:

You see, most commercial lenders give themselves a built-in margin of error of at least 20% – 40%. They do this by lending only 60% – 80% of the property’s appraised value.

Needless to say, that may work for them but can you afford to hire an appraiser whose value is wrong by 20% – 40% or more?

The bottom line: banks make money by selling as many loans as possible, as quickly and cheaply as they can.

As a result, appraisers that get most of their work from banks are under constant pressure to deliver appraisals faster and cheaper, often at the expense of accuracy and reliability.

And what’s worse, after years of repetition this cost-cutting, short-cutting carelessness becomes a habit.

And, of course, when the occasional individual client like you comes along, well…we all know how habits are hard to break.


#2
We never use trainee appraisers—all our appraisers have at least 15 years’ experience

Want to know an industry secret?

Many appraisal firms use inexperienced appraiser trainees, also known as ‘licensed appraiser assistants,’ to do your appraisal start to finish—with little or no supervision.[2]

Upon completion, your appraisal is basically rubber-stamped with the signature of the senior appraiser you thought you hired to do the job.

Why? Because trainees work cheap—and sometimes they even work for free.

This is one of the ways appraisers cut costs so they can advertise cheap appraisal prices.

It’s a disturbingly common practice.

We never use trainees or licensed appraiser assistants in any capacity. All our appraisers are TX State Certified and have at least 15 years’ experience.

With us, you’ll have one highly skilled and experienced appraiser who does your appraisal from start to finish.

[2] How are they allowed to get away with this?

You see, trainees are supposed to be apprentices. But it takes years of careful supervision and hand-holding from a seasoned appraiser to correctly learn the trade—many who use trainees can’t be bothered with all that.

Institutional clients like banks and mortgage companies have no problem with this practice because it enables appraisal firms to dramatically cut costs and speed up turnaround time.

And as you just learned in the previous section above, banks protect themselves by lending only 60% – 80% of the appraised value, so they have no reason to care that this practice often leads to low quality, inaccurate appraisals.

As a result, their most valuable clients—banks—get what they really want: cheap, fast appraisals.

Unfortunately, their least valuable clients—individual clients like you—are often lured in by their cut-rate prices, not knowing about all the corners being cut behind the scenes.


#3
With us, you’re a big fish in a little pond
(instead of the other way around)

If you read the points above, you now understand why we avoid ‘institutional clients’ and their high-volume appraisal needs.

Instead we prefer to work with individual clients like you who need an appraisal of just one or maybe several properties.

We believe that when you hire a company for an important job, you should expect to be treated like an important person.

We know from experience this is not the case at many appraisal firms—where [3] big institutional clients are doted on, while individual clients like you are pushed to the back of the line and unapologetically treated as less important.

Our clients have our office numbers, cell phone numbers and personal e-mail addresses. We make ourselves available day and night. When you call, we answer. Not a receptionist or a pushy salesman.

We offer you a unique level of access and commitment—and we can usually do so at a lower cost than premium-priced big name firms, because we don’t have to charge extra to cover bloated operational costs.

[3] Because we focus on individual clients like you, and avoid institutional clients, quite frankly, your business means a lot more to us than it does to most other appraisal companies.

From your first phone call, to your receipt of the completed appraisal report—our commitment to your satisfaction is evident throughout every step of the process.


Call now for a FREE quote:
(tap here to call on a mobile)
(713) 766-3674

Give us a call—it’s the easiest way to get answers to your questions including info on appraisal pricing and timing. So why not give us a call now—during normal business hours, we always answer.