If you’d like to know the value of your property quickly and with a high level of precision, the person to go to is a property valuer.

A property appraiser is a real estate professional who is often also operating as a real estate agent. They have relevant local knowledge and experience to provide you an estimation of your property’s value fast and reliably.

But like any other profession, there are good assessors and bad ones. How are you able to avoid the bad ones?

Following are 4 things to check when selecting a good property appraiser:

1. Professional Qualifications and/or Registration

Depending on your country and state, it may be a requirement for property assessors to be certified or licensed. Nonetheless in numerous countries, including Australia, this isn’t the case. Even so, there are associations that function as registries for real estate professionals.

The person you are considering should be an affiliate of at least one registered body of real-estate professionals. So ask her or him about her qualifiactions and professional memberships. If there are none, stay clear.

2. Check the Company or Organisation

If the appraiser professes to be part of a real estate agency or company, then, ask for his or her membership card and have it copied for your research purposes. Check with the agency connected to the valuer. Ask for the appraiser’s past record before choosing to hire the services offered or not.

Do a simple search on Google for the organisation and the person’s name and check if what you find is in line with what the prospective appraiser has told you.

3. Check for detailed familiarity of your local area

Ask the appraiser if he or she has a high percentage of work in your local area. The bigger the percentage, the better. Why? It means the appraiser knows the “ins and outs” of the specific neighborhood and has a profound knowledge on the area. A good way to check this is to ask how well he knows your street and surrounding houses or facilities when you tell him your address.

4. Personal Visit

Assessments can’t be done remotely or over the phone. A good appraiser will insist on coming to your home and view it personally. An appraiser would also be able to give you some guidance on which improvements you may make to your house to increase its valuation. As per point 3, he or she should require little direction to find your house. Also, most real estate agents will not charge any money for an appraisal.

These are four things that you need to know about your valuer. If these four areas check out fine, then you probably have found a good property appraiser. You now stand to get a quality answer to the question “What is my house worth?“.

The real estate market in 2009 can be looked at as a positive or a negative depending on whom you are asking. For those looking to purchase a house, or building the new low prices are great. Those looking to sell their property are probably not as in favor of the plummeting prices. There are different types who may be for or against the pricing. For different reason they may be in favor or against. Those with property in hand may definitely be hard press to get the price they originally were seeking, but those looking to buy a house may be surprised at the prices they find when they are ready to purchase.

Say your are a new couple looking to by your first house, a few years ago you probably would not have been able to afford a new house. Prices a few years ago were almost untouchable to those starting out. Now in 2009 it has become a buyers market, so that couple now has the opportunely to get their dream home, without being dragged over the coals. So, in this instance they would be in favor of the new market.

On the other hand if you are a family who has decided to sell your house for the chance to move on for career or other reasons, getting the price you feel you deserve is going to be a hard task. The Value of your house from a few years earlier (which you may have expected to rise) will more than likely drop. This will definitely put people in a hard place, thus theses are the ones who will not take to the markets plummet. The solution here is to hold on to your property if selling is not a necessity right now.

Business owners may also see both sides of the argument as they can benefit or struggle due to the new market. If you are looking for a spot to start up or move your business to then you might want to buy your building as oppose to rent. If you can afford to buy you will save more in the long run. Landlords who have seen the value of their property drop may be tempted to raise the building s rent to compensate. So, for the business owner to pay the rent that a landlord has established may no longer be feasible.

So, with this slipping market ones best bet may be to try and hold on to your current property until the market rises again and you can then profit from it. Also for those who have been on the fence over the years about finally purchasing property this is the time to jump in. So, as with any topic there will always be two sides to every argument and it all depends on whom you ask.