Appraiser Tom Horn: Birmingham Prices Down, But May Be Recovering

If Sellers sometimes have an unrealistic idea of what a Buyer is willing to pay, Tom Horn brings them back to reality.

Tom is an appraiser in the Birmingham and Shelby Co. area, and owns appraisal-source.com, a company Lenders and homeowners trying to sell on their own rely upon for accurate residential market appraisals.

Colleen and I caught up with Tom and got his analysis of what’s happening with home values in the Shelby Co. and Birmingham areas. We found out pretty quickly that talking with Tom is very interesting!

From everything we learned about home price trends in the area, as well as the negative effects on home sales prices caused by government-mandated changes in the way appraisers are selected, we knew we needed Tom to share his expertise with us.

We’ve divided our interview with Tom into two segments. Click the players just below to listen to Parts 1 and 2.

Tom Horn Interview Part 1:

Price trends overall from 2006 are down, but may be slowly recovering

New homes are competing heavily with owners trying to sell existing homes

Foreclosures are now “making” the market

Increasingly, Foreclosures are higher end properties

What banks are doing that hurts Sellers and the community

Tom Horn Interview Part 2:

How Sellers can try to keep their home’s value at its highest

How the Government’s plan to manage appraisals is causing complications and affecting values

How Appraisers are being paid less while Homeowners are being charged more

How to sell sooner, rather than later: The value of getting a pre-appraisal

…or, if you’d like to listen by downloading to your portable device:

Click here to download Part 1 (10 Mb).

Click here to download Part 2 (7 Mb).

Links to Thomas Horn’s websites:

Click for Appraisal-source website

Click for Tom’s Appraisal Blog

We hope you enjoy … and thanks, Tom, for the great information!

David Black