{"id":17829,"date":"2025-09-16T04:26:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T11:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=17829"},"modified":"2025-12-21T23:30:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T07:30:14","slug":"what-hurts-a-home-appraisal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/what-hurts-a-home-appraisal\/","title":{"rendered":"What Hurts a Home Appraisal? 16 Factors That Can Bring the Value Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your scheduled home appraisal is nearing, and no matter the circumstances, it\u2019s always an intimidating event. Whether you plan to buy<\/a>, sell<\/a>, or refinance<\/a> your home, an appraiser\u2019s opinion holds a lot of weight. So, what hurts a home appraisal, and is there anything you can do about it?<\/p>\n

The lender will be looking for an appraised value to determine what they\u2019re willing to lend on a property. The amount you can borrow through a <\/span>home equity loan<\/span><\/a> will also depend on the appraised value of your home.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n \"homelight\n <\/div>\n \n

Get an Estimate on Your Home's Value<\/h3>\n

While not the same as an appraisal, HomeLight’s Home Value Estimator can be a great starting place to get an idea of your home’s value.<\/p>\n \n

\n Get Estimate<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/span><\/p>\n

So, you wouldn\u2019t be the first person to call your handyman in a panic or run the vacuum frantically before an appraisal while asking the universe for <\/span>top value<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at 16 <\/span>factors that can affect your appraisal<\/span><\/a> and why they\u2019re important.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Why does appraised value matter?<\/h2>\n

The objective of an appraisal is to provide an \u201cindependent and impartial analysis of real property<\/a>,\u201d according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Appraisers are certified and licensed to perform these services.<\/p>\n

The appraiser\u2019s client typically is the lender, and the appraised value determines the amount of funds a lender is willing to provide or the amount of equity a homeowner can borrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cLenders want to know how much that property would bring in an open market, so they can ascertain that the loan is well enough supported by the collateral,\u201d says Rodman Schley<\/a>, 2021 National President of the Appraisal Institute<\/a>, a Chicago-based global professional association for real estate appraisers.<\/p>\n

The appraisal also helps to shield a financed homebuyer from potential risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay the buyer loses their job a year later,\u201d says Mike Ford<\/a>, a general certified real estate appraiser in Southern California since 1986. \u201cIf they\u2019re upside down, they can\u2019t sell the house, and they\u2019re likely going to have a foreclosure. If they buy it at the right value and something happens a year or two into it, they can probably get out with their skin intact. They may not have any profit, but they may not suffer any loss or at least as big a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These 16 factors can lower the appraised value of your home, including your location, square footage, home amenities, and a lack of curb appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":45130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[242,322,330],"tags":[491,736],"class_list":["post-17829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-appraisals","category-logistics","category-house-value","tag-basics","tag-what-hurts-property-value"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Hurts a Home Appraisal? 16 Factors to Be Aware Of<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What hurts a home appraisal? Location, square footage, amenities, curb appeal, and other factors can lower the appraised value of your home.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/what-hurts-a-home-appraisal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Hurts a Home Appraisal? 16 Factors That Can Bring the Value Down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What hurts a home appraisal? Location, square footage, amenities, curb appeal, and other factors can lower the appraised value of your home.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/what-hurts-a-home-appraisal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HomeLight Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gohomelight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-16T11:26:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-22T07:30:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hl-blog.homelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/HomeLight-Header-Image-1000-\u00d7-563-px-12.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"563\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Garrett Callahan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CallahanGarrett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gohomelight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Garrett Callahan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"15 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Hurts a Home Appraisal? 16 Factors to Be Aware Of","description":"What hurts a home appraisal? 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Based in Massachusetts, he is an admirer of historic homes and loves an old house with a good story.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/garrettcallahan\/","https:\/\/x.com\/CallahanGarrett"],"url":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/author\/garrett-callahan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}