If you are looking to buy or sell a home in the McLean real estate market, there are several factors you will want to take into account. What is the health of the market? Which direction is the real estate heading? Will it be worth your investment?



But one of the key things to look out for is the actual worth of the homes being bought and sold in the McLean real estate market. More often than not in these days of increased foreclosures and tighter markets, buyers and sellers are both dealing with the appraisal question - what are homes actually worth and what are they appraised for at the time of a purchase, a refinance or a home equity loan.

The issue was recently addressed by The Washington Post, and they looked around the area, including the Vienna real estate market and saw that prices were fluctuating greatly. That called for a greater need for honest and accurate appraisers to keep buyers and sellers from getting into bad deals.

If you deal with real estate appraisers, they must be reliable in their assessment of your potential home or the home you are selling. They can't miss what else is going on in the market as a whole or in your neighborhood when they care coming up with a value of your property, especially when housing is in such a state of flux.

If you work with an appraiser in Northern Virginia, and especially in the Vienna real estate market, they should be able to check out what else is selling, what prices are being cut and what homes are being foreclosed on around your immediate area. If there are more foreclosures, than the home you're selling or buying will be touched. If other owners are desperate to sell, then your potential sale will be hurt as well.

Appraisers are just part of the home loan transaction, though they are vital to it because the value they come up with will determine the action of banks, loan underwriters, real estate agents and home buyers. In the boom time of housing a few years ago, appraisals weren't looked at with as much scrutiny. The result was inflated values of homes and this was actually a boost to buyers and sellers, because they allowed some owners in need of more cash for other debts to tab into large amounts of equity.

"There is higher scrutiny because the market is going down," James Loizou, co-owner of Suburban Appraisers & Consultants in Fairfax, Virginia told the Washington Post.

One way a home buyer can keep themselves safe when checking out the whether the value of a home is inflated is to work closely with the loan officer. Since it is the lender who hires the appraiser, make sure that the appraiser has been told to do a thorough job and not just a quick appraisal that may skew its value.

Some lenders may start your home loan with a automated valuation before they determine a more detailed appraisal as part of the approval of your loan. Be sure to check with your underwriter to see if that is how their loan system works.

There is some government oversight which could help you. Last week, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine signed a law which regulates mortgage settlement statements. They must let you know about any fees charged in relation to automated valuation or anything done by a non-licensed appraiser. You can use this law as protection to help make sure you are getting a fair deal in the Virginia real estate market in McLean and Vienna.