Eagle Home Appraisal Wilmington
Estate appraisals in Wilmington, Delaware.
When a house passes to the family, the first thing you need is a clear value and the date it's meant to reflect.
An estate appraisal can help with a settlement, a buyout between heirs or an adviser's records. Before we start, we'll agree on what it's for and who will read it.
Serving Wilmington and New Castle County, Delaware
One inherited house can need two different values.
What the house was worth when the owner passed and what it would sell for today are two different questions. Ask the estate attorney or tax adviser which one they need, and bring what they tell you to our first conversation.
Gather the house and the papers together.
Start with the street address, the parcel number if you have it, the date the value should reflect and who will be reading the report. If an executor, attorney or accountant has given you instructions, send those along too.
For a Wilmington parcel, the New Castle County Recorder of Deeds is a good place to find recorded documents. The deed tells you who owns the property and its history; the appraisal tells you what it's worth.
What's changed since the owner passed?
Families often get the house cleaned out, painted or fixed up before anyone orders a report. Walking through it today can't show what it looked like on an earlier date.
Photos, an old listing and dated repair bills help a great deal. Make a note if a roof, kitchen or addition was done after the date you need. We'll talk about which records help us picture the house as it was.
Even a familiar block needs careful comparisons.
The row houses of Quaker Hill and the twins of Cool Spring don't compare with a detached house in Wawaset Park. A sale down the street is a starting point, not an automatic match.
We look for sales that fit your house's type, condition and the date you need. A city-wide median for some later month can't answer that.
The appraisal is one piece of a bigger decision.
An appraisal gives you an opinion of what the real estate is worth. How the heirs divide it and how the estate files are questions for your attorney or tax adviser.
If the report is for an estate inventory, see probate appraisals. For tax records on an inherited home, see date-of-passing appraisals. If the family is also thinking of selling or buying someone out, say whether you need today's value as well.
Before we visit the house.
Tell us who can let us in and whether anyone lives there. Share any deadline and who is waiting for the report. We'll go over the job, the fee and when we could deliver for this particular house, before you count on a date.
Send the address, the date you need and who will read it through the estate inquiry. You don't have to settle the whole estate before you pick up the phone. Call whenever you're ready.
A few questions that come up.
Can the value be for a date in the past?
Yes. We can develop a value as of an earlier date. Tell us the date, what records you have, and why you need it, and we'll go over how it would work.
Should I fix the house up before the appraisal?
Tell us what the report is for and the date it should reflect before you spend anything. If you need an earlier value, hold on to records of the house as it was before later repairs. We can talk through how a visit today and the older records fit together.
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Eagle Home Appraisal Wilmington