An independent opinion of market value before you list, plus a measured floor plan under the ANSI Z765-2021 standard. Fee quoted in writing before I start.
A pre-listing appraisal is an independent opinion of your home's market value as of a stated date, prepared before you go to market. Nobody is paying me a commission on the sale, and my fee does not move with the number I reach. That independence is the entire product: a documented, defensible number from someone with no stake in what the house sells for.
Sellers use it three ways. To set a list price they can stand behind when a buyer's agent pushes back. To settle a disagreement — between co-owners, between siblings, or between two agents who gave you numbers $60,000 apart. And to get the square footage measured correctly before it goes in the MLS, which is where a surprising share of deals come apart later.
These are the situations where the report reliably pays for itself, because something about the property or the situation makes ordinary comparison hard, or because there is a disagreement that needs a neutral document to settle it.
If your home is a standard subdivision property with four or five close sales in the past six months and you are happy with your agent's pricing, you may not need me — send me the address and I will tell you that on the phone rather than take the assignment.
Square footage measured to ANSI Z765-2021 and a floor plan you can hand to your agent, so the number in the MLS is one you can defend if a buyer's appraiser measures it later.
These are two different appraisals with two different jobs, and it is worth knowing that before you list. Mine sets your price and backs up your position in negotiation. The lender's, later in the deal, protects the lender's collateral. If your buyer finances the purchase, that second appraisal happens regardless.
The reason is appraiser independence: the rules built into the mortgage system require the lender to select and engage its own appraiser, and Fannie Mae's requirements state that lenders may not use appraisals ordered or received by borrowers or by other parties with an interest in the transaction, which expressly includes the property seller and the real estate agent. As the seller, I am your appraiser, which is what makes my report useful to you and unusable to them.
So budget for mine as pricing and negotiating work, not as a way to skip a step later. What it does buy you is a seller who already knows what the house supports — including the measured square footage — before an appraisal ever comes back low and puts the deal in renegotiation.
ANSI Z765-2021 is a measuring standard that decides what counts as finished area. It says nothing about what a square foot is worth.
Square footage is where more listing disputes start than any other single item, and the reason is that the numbers floating around your house came from sources that never measured it to a common rule. The Tarrant Appraisal District figure is a mass-appraisal record, often inherited from a builder plan or an older sketch. MLS figures frequently repeat the tax record. Neither is a measurement, and the two often disagree with each other.
ANSI Z765-2021 is the American National Standard for measuring single-family residential buildings. It is not a valuation method and it does not decide what your home is worth. It is a set of counting rules, and it produces a repeatable number rather than an opinion. Fannie Mae has required it on most one-unit lender appraisals since April 2022; for private work like yours I apply it because a stated standard is defensible and a freehand number is not.
Sometimes it is. A converted garage that was never permitted or never properly conditioned, a sunroom with a seven-foot ceiling at the ridge and five feet at the wall, a bonus room over the garage with a low knee wall, a finished space with a step down below grade. Each of those can come out of gross living area or come out partially, and the total can land under the tax record.
That is not a loss. Excluded space is not worthless space, and I describe it, measure it, and account for its contribution separately rather than pretending it does not exist. What changes is that the number in your listing is one you can support if a buyer's appraiser measures it differently later. Discovering the discrepancy after you are under contract is considerably more expensive than discovering it now, which is most of the argument for measuring before you list rather than after.
A square footage discrepancy discovered after you are under contract is far more expensive than one discovered before you list.
Texas does not require sale prices to be recorded publicly. If you are selling on your own, you cannot look up what your neighbor's house actually closed at, and the free estimates you can find online are automated models working around that same gap. This is the concrete reason FSBO sellers in Tarrant County end up mispriced in both directions.
As a licensed appraiser I have access to sales data and the ability to verify and adjust it, which is a large part of what you are paying for. What I will not do is act as your agent. I do not market the property, hold it open, screen buyers, negotiate, or prepare contracts, and I have no interest in whether or at what price it sells.
I look at condition because condition affects value, and I will note deferred maintenance, functional problems, and obvious defects that a market participant would react to. That is not the same as a home inspection. I do not test systems, get on the roof, enter crawl spaces, run appliances, or issue a defect list, and I am not licensed to do so.
An appraisal also does not satisfy your obligation as a seller under Section 5.008 of the Texas Property Code to give a buyer a written disclosure of the property's condition. That form asks what you know about the house. My report is an outside opinion of value and does not stand in for it.
I appraise one-to-four unit residential property and residential land only, in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and the surrounding North Texas market where I have current familiarity. No commercial property, no apartment buildings of five units or more, no subdivision analysis.
The fee is quoted in writing before I begin (standard single-family starts at $500), based on the property's size, complexity, and location. It does not change with the value I conclude, whether you list, or what the house eventually sells for. Typical turnaround from inspection to delivered report is 5 to 7 business days, and the inspection itself usually runs 20 to 45 minutes. Have the attic access, garage, and any outbuildings reachable, and tell me about work you have done and roughly when, including anything permitted.
Private sale
“I needed an appraisal for a private sale and wasn't even sure what kind I needed. Terrence walked me through it on the phone, got me scheduled right away, and had a very thorough report back to me faster than I expected. Easy to work with start to finish.”Joel Wilbur · Google review
It is worth it when the property is unusual, heavily renovated, on acreage, has questionable recorded square footage, when co-owners disagree, when agents have given you very different numbers, or when you are selling without an agent. In those cases the report either settles the argument or keeps you from listing at a number the market will not support. If your home is a standard subdivision property with several close sales in the last six months and you are comfortable with your agent's pricing, you may not need one — send me the address and I will tell you.
No. Appraiser independence rules require the lender to select and engage its own appraiser, and Fannie Mae's requirements state that lenders may not use appraisals ordered or received by borrowers or other parties with an interest in the transaction, including the property seller and the real estate agent. Plan on the buyer's lender ordering a separate appraisal, and budget my fee as informing your pricing rather than saving that step.
Because the district's figure is a mass-appraisal record, often taken from a builder plan or an older sketch, and was not necessarily produced by measuring the house to a published standard. When I measure under ANSI Z765-2021 the result can be larger or smaller. Common sources of difference are converted garages, low-ceiling bonus rooms, sunrooms, additions, and any space partially below grade, which ANSI reports separately from gross living area.
It is the American National Standard for measuring single-family residential buildings, and it defines what counts as finished square footage. Key rules include a seven-foot minimum ceiling height, a fifty percent rule under sloped ceilings with nothing under five feet counted, exclusion of openings to the floor below, and separate reporting of any area partially or completely below grade. Fannie Mae has required it on most one-unit lender appraisals since April 2022.
My fee is quoted in writing before I begin (standard single-family starts at $500), with the figure depending on the property's size, complexity, and location. It does not change with the value I conclude, whether you list, or what the property later sells for. If you only need the property measured and a floor plan produced without a value opinion, that is a smaller separate engagement and I will quote it separately.
No, and I will not suggest otherwise. An appraisal is an opinion of market value as of a specific date based on the evidence available then. What a house actually sells for depends on exposure time, marketing, condition at showing, buyer financing, negotiation, and how the market moves after my effective date. Treat the report as a well-supported reference point, not a forecast.
No, nothing in Texas law requires it. The practical argument for one is that Texas does not make sale prices public, so without MLS access you have no reliable way to see what comparable homes actually closed at. If you are selling on your own, that data gap is the main thing my fee buys. You still owe the buyer a written seller's disclosure of the property's condition under Section 5.008 of the Property Code, which an appraisal does not replace.
No. I observe and report condition because it affects value, but I do not test systems, climb on the roof, enter crawl spaces, operate appliances, or produce a defect list, and I am not licensed as an inspector. If you want to know what is wrong with the house before you list, hire a licensed Texas real estate inspector. The two reports answer different questions and many sellers order both.
Written fee quote, typically within one business hour. If all you need is the house measured and a floor plan produced, that is a smaller engagement and I will quote it separately.
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