Appraisal services for Carlisle and Cumberland County homeowners

The top seven reasons PA homeowners use McCarthy Associates:

  1. To get a pre-listing appraisal (whether you're using a real estate agent or selling the home on your own)
  2. To challenge a PA property tax assessment
  3. Remove PMI to lower a mortgage payment
  4. To reinstate your Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)
  5. Review another appraiser's report for verification
  6. In the case of a PA divorce, when property needs to be divided
  7. To settle an estate in Cumberland county or PA by determining the true market value of property in question

Need help deciding the value of your house in or near Carlisle, PA?
Contact McCarthy Associates.

At McCarthy Associates, we understand the unique needs of a customer in need of appraisal services. Our customary business clients are used to the appraisal process and the customary documents we provide. But as a consumer,you will receive extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to more fully understand what we do and how we report our conclusions.

For Sale By Owner (FSBO)/Pre-Listing Services

Since you have an emotional attachment to your house, it's often very hard to be objective about it. Professional appraisers, like the ones at McCarthy Associates, are objective. We'll tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. In addition to helping you set a realistic price to sell at so your house will attract many interested buyers, a professional appraisal is a very valuable negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer. It's something concrete to show your buyer. An appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your property's value -- not just how much you think your home is worth. Potential buyers know you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be much more likely to give credibility to an expert appraiser's value opinion than yours.

Need to cancel PMI?

A fashionable way to cut costs for homeowners is getting the PMI removed from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". Once your mortgage loan amount is below 80% of the value of your home, in most cases you can apply to your lender to have the PMI canceled from your loan, which will make your monthly payments go down. At McCarthy Associates, we're seasoned in helping people just like you abolish unwanted and unneeded PMI insurance.

Challenging Cumberland county's assessment of your property

Your local tax assessor may have your house overvalued if your home is not appreciating as much as other properties close to yours. That means you're probably paying more taxes than you should. The earlier you take care of a matter like this, the better off you'll be, since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period. Getting an appraisal from McCarthy Associates is your perfect weapon when challenging your property tax assessment.

HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender might make the decision to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your home is close to a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can be be destructive to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also inconvenient from a cash flow viewpoint. McCarthy Associates can help you reinstate your home equity line of credit with an expert appraisal.

Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Have you just accepted a copy of your appraisal and you would like to have a seasoned expert double-check it for efficiency or do you desire a second opinion without the cost and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? In a field review we will go out and check the subject and comps in question. If you're in a hurry, we'll provide desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files.

Do you need a retrospective review of an appraisal report? McCarthy Associates can help you with that. Even though this is typically requested by banks, you may want to exploit this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your property.