Are Appraisals Considered an Essential Business? 

Why Are Appraisals Considered an Essential Business?

With Florida recently enacting statewide stay at home orders, everyone is hoping that the Covid-19 outbreak will soon be a distant memory. In the meantime, there are some businesses that are temporarily closing and others that are staying open for business depending on if they are considered an essential business.

Appraisals may not seem like an essential business at first glance, but we assure you that home appraisals in Port Charlotte and Southwest Florida are essential for many reasons.

How Are We Protecting Our Clients During COVID 19?

Amid the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, everyone is trying to practice social distancing and is staying at home to avoid unnecessary physical contact. However, not everyone has that luxury, and day to day people are still trying to maintain a sense of normality.

In order to help our clients through these trying times, we have come up with several different options they can choose from when having a home appraisal done.

Virtual Appraisals

The first and most reasonable option is our virtual appraisals. These are incredibly easy to conduct and take up very little of your own time. Virtual appraisals are conducted all online through pictures and videos. We will be able to have a look around your entire home without ever needing to leave our office.

Depending on what you have available to you we can either facetime or use one of many other video calling services.

Then you would simply use a camera (even your phone’s camera should work just fine) and walk around your home taking pictures of the property.

After you have taken all of the pictures needed you can send them to us and we will be able to provide you with a quick and accurate appraisal!

Virtual appraisals are incredibly easy and we will even help you through some of the set up when it comes to video calling if you are not already familiar with it. Conducting appraisals virtually is the best possible way to get an accurate appraisal as quickly as possible. Not to mention that a virtual appraisal is the safest way to get a quick and accurate appraisal while dealing with COVID-19.

In-Home Appraisals

In-home appraisals are still an option for those who want to exercise this option. They are just as accurate as a virtual appraisal however not everyone has access to the technology required to conduct an appraisal virtually which is why in-home appraisals are still an option.

We first want to state that we take our client’s safety incredibly seriously which is why we have started taking measures of our own to keep both our clients and our appraisers safe and healthy.

Anyone who has a fever or is showing any signs of illness will not be permitted to conduct in-home appraisals. We would appreciate it if our clients would show us the same courtesy and reschedule any appraisal appointments if they are showing any signs of fever or illness.

We also will abide by quarantine restrictions if any of our staff have come into contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19 and any appointments they may have had will be done by another appraiser or will be rescheduled.

Before entering the property we will ask the owner if they want us to come in. If the owner does not want us to come inside the property their lender may request an exterior-only inspection.

If the property owner does want us to come inside for the inspection before accessing the property we will be sure to put disposable shoe covers over our shoes and put on face masks.

Anytime that we enter a home we please ask that any high contact surfaces such as counters, door handles, and light switches are wiped down prior to the appraisal appointment.

We also ask while going from one room to the next that the homeowner opens any doors and turns on any lights to reduce any contact the appraiser will have with any surroundings in the home. If needed we will use sanitizer wipes to open any doors or turn on any lights.