Appraisal services for Waterloo and Black Hawk County homeowners

The top seven reasons IA homeowners call on First Security:

Pre-listing appraisals (whether you're using an agent or selling the home on your own)
Challenge Black Hawk county's assessment of your propertyvalue
To cut your mortgage payment by removing PMI
To reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
Review a different appraiser's report for verification
In the case of a IA divorce, where real estate property needs to be divided
To determine the true market value of real estate in question to settle an estate in IA

Do you own a house in or near Waterloo? Do you need help deciding the value of your real estate?
Contact First Security.

We at First Security understand the unique needs of a consumer after appraisal services. Our business practices and reporting formats are familiar to our business clients like banks, lawyers, and accountants. But as a consumer,we'll be sure you get extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to more clearly understand what we do and how we present our conclusions.

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

Since you have an emotional attachment to your house, it's often very hard to be objective about it. Our professional appraisers at First Security are objective. We won't just tell you what you want to hear, we will tell you what you need to know. A professional appraisal is a crucial negotiating tool once you have a likely buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic price to sell at so your home will attract buyers. It gives you something tangible to show your buyer. The appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your property's price, not just you saying how much you think your home is worth. Interested buyers assume that you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be more likely to give credibility to an accomplished appraiser's value assessment than yours.

PMI Removal Appraisals

Getting the PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) eliminated from your mortgage loan is a preferred money saver for homeowners. Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan is below 80% of the value of your property. In most cases you can apply to a lender to have the PMI eliminated from your loan. We are qualified in helping people just like you get rid of unwanted and unneeded PMI insurance.

Challenging a property tax assessment

Your local tax assessor may have your house overvalued if your house not appreciating as much as other properties nearby. That only means you're going to pay more taxes than you should. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the sooner you take care of things like this, the better. Getting an appraisal report from First Security is your strongest weapon when contesting your property tax assessment.

HELOC recently frozen?

If your home is in a declining area, your lender just might make the decision to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) - even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can this be difficult from a cash flow point of view, and damaging to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. First Security can help you reinstate your home equity line of credit with a professional appraisal.

We Offer Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Have you just accepted a copy of your appraisal and you'd wish to have an expert double-check it for verity or do you need a second opinion without the expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? First Security offers field reviews where we'll go out and check the subject and comps. Or, if you're in a hurry, we can 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? First Security can help with that too. Even though this is typically requested by banks, you may need to take advantage of this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your property.