Real estate appraisal services for homeowners in the city of Charleston and Charleston County

The top seven reasons SC homeowners call on David LaFour:

Find the right listing price (whether you're using an agent or selling the home on your own)
Challenge Charleston county's assessment of your property
To lower their mortgage payments by removing PMI
To reinstate their Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)
Verify another appraiser's report
In the case of a SC divorce, when property needs to be divided
To determine the true market value of real estate in question to settle an estate in Charleston County or the state of SC

Do you own a home in or near Charleston? Do you need help determining the price of your real estate?
Contact David LaFour.

At David LaFour, we understand the special needs of a homeowner looking for appraisal services. Our business practices and reporting formats are relatively routine to our business clients like lenders, attorneys, and accountants. But as a consumer,you'll receive extra guidance and explanations through the appraisal process to more clearly understand what we do and how we report the results of our analysis.

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

It's very hard to be objective about your home because you most likely have an emotional attachment to it. Professional appraisers, like the ones at David LaFour, will be objective. We'll tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. A professional appraisal is very valuable as a negotiating tool once you have an interested buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic selling price so your house will attract many interested buyers. It gives you something concrete to show the buyer. It's an independent third party's opinion of your property's value, and not just you saying how much you think your house is worth. Interested buyers assume that you have an emotional attachment to your home and will be much more likely to give credibility to a professional appraiser's value report than yours.

Appraisals to remove PMI

An attractive way to cut expenses for homeowners is getting the PMI eliminated from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. PMI stands for "Private Mortgage Insurance". 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 the lender to have the PMI eliminated from your loan. We are veterans in helping consumers just like you remove undesirable PMI insurance.

Challenging property tax assessments

Your local tax assessor may have your house overvalued if you live in a local area that's declining. That means you are paying more taxes than you should. 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 off you'll be. When challenging your property tax assessment, getting an appraisal from David LaFour is your best weapon.

Was your HELOC recently frozen?

Your lender might decide to automatically freeze your home equity line of credit (HELOC) if your home is in or near a declining area -- even if your specific property has not declined in value. This can be be bad for your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out, and also unsuitable from a cash flow viewpoint. David LaFour can provide you with an expert appraisal to help you reinstate your home equity line of credit.

Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services

Do you need an expert to double-check your appraisal for accuracy, or do you want a second opinion without the added expense and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? We can go out and check the subject and comps in a field review. If you need it ASAP, 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 We can assist you While usually requested by banks, you may need to take advantage of this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your home.