Attention homeowners: Real estate appraisal services for in Grosse Pointe Park and Wayne County

Here are the top reasons MI homeowners use Don Orttenburger:

  1. Find the right listing price (whether they're selling the home themselves or using an agent)
  2. To challenge a MI property tax assessment
  3. To lower your monthly mortgage payment by removing PMI
  4. To reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)
  5. Review another appraiser's report for verification
  6. If real estate needs to be divided because of a divorce
  7. Determine the true market value of real estate in question to settle an estate in MI

Do you own a home in or near Grosse Pointe Park? Do you need help determining the price of your real estate?
Contact Don Orttenburger.

We at Don Orttenburger understand the unique needs of a customer in need of appraisal services. While our usual clients understand the appraisal process and standard reporting formats, you as a consumer will get extra service in the form of an explanation of the process and even special consumer-friendly reporting forms if the assignment allows for them.

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

Since you have an emotional attachment to your own home, it's often very hard to be objective about it. A professional appraiser is objective and will tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. In addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your house will attract buyers, a professional appraisal is a very important negotiating tool once you have an interested buyer. The appraisal is something tangible to show the buyer. It's an independent third party's opinion of your house's value, and not just how much your house is worth. Potential buyers assume you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be much more likely to give credibility to an accomplished appraiser's value report than yours.

Appraisals to remove PMI

Getting the PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) canceled from your mortgage loan is a popular way to cut expenses for homeowners. Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan is less than 80% of the value of your house. In most cases you can apply to a lender to have the PMI eliminated from your loan. We are veterans in helping homeowners just like you delete unneeded and unwanted PMI insurance.

Challenging a property tax assessment

Your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued if you live in a local area that is going down. This only means you're paying higher taxes than you should be paying. Since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period, the earlier you take care of a matter like this, the better. When contesting your property tax assessment, getting an appraisal from Don Orttenburger is your #1 weapon.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender may just make the decision to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your property is in a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. Not only can this be inopportune from a cash flow point of view, but it can be bad for your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. An efficient appraisal from Don Orttenburger can help you reinstate your HELOC.

Need Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services?

Do you need a seasoned expert to double-check your appraisal for efficiency, or do you need a second opinion without the charge and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? In a field review we'll go out and check the subject and comparables in question. If you need it immediately, we'll provide you with a desk review and verify as many facts as we can using online data sources as well as our own files.

Need a retrospective review of an appraisal? We can help you with that Even though this is usually requested by banks, you may desire to utilize this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your property.