Need an appraisal in Pittsburgh or Allegheny County?

Here are the top reasons PA homeowners use JSH:

Get a pre-listing appraisal (whether you're using a real estate agent or selling the home on your own)
Challenge property tax assessments
To cut a monthly mortgage payment by removing PMI
To reinstate your Home Equity Line of Credit (or HELOC)
To review another appraiser's report for verification
If real estate property needs to be divided because of a divorce
Determine the true market value of property in question to settle an estate

Do you own a house in or near Pittsburgh? Do you need help determining the price of your real estate?
Contact JSH.

We at JSH understand the individual needs of a homeowner in need of appraisal services. Our typical business clients get the appraisal process and the usual "products" we deliver to them. As our non-traditionalclient, we will give you 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/Pre-Listing Services

Since you have an emotional attachment to your own home, it's often very hard to be objective about it. The professional appraisers at JSH will tell you what you need to know -- not just what you want to hear. We are objective. A professional appraisal is very important as a negotiating tool once you have a likely buyer, in addition to helping you set a realistic price to sell at so your house will attract many interested buyers. It gives you something concrete to show your buyer. The appraisal is an independent third party's opinion of your property's value, not just you saying how much you think your house is worth. Potential buyers know that you have an emotional attachment to your house and will be more likely to give credibility to an accomplished appraiser's value report than yours.

Need to remove PMI?

PMI stands for Private Mortgage Insurance. An attractive way to save money for homeowners is getting the PMI removed from their mortgage loan, thus saving them money on their monthly payments. Your monthly payments will go down once your mortgage loan is less than 80% of the value of your property. In most cases you can apply to your lender to have the PMI canceled from your loan. We are seasoned in helping customers just like you dismiss unwanted and unneeded PMI insurance.

Challenging a property tax assessment

Lets say you live in a region that's declining -- your local tax assessor may have your home overvalued. This only means you're going to pay higher taxes than you should be paying. The faster you take care of a matter like this, the better, since your property assessment may likely go up again in the next period. When challenging your property tax assessment, getting a professional appraisal from JSH is your number one 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 this be unsuitable from a cash flow angle, and detrimental to your credit score since it may appear as though that credit line is maxed out. JSH can provide you with efficient appraisal to help you reinstate your HELOC.

Do You Need Field and Desktop Appraisal Review Services?

Have you just accepted a copy of your appraisal and you'd prefer to have a seasoned expert double-check it for accuracy or do you desire a second opinion without the charge and delay of waiting for a whole new appraisal? We can go out and check the subject and comparables in a field review. If you're in a hurry, 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 report? We can help you with that While typically requested by banks, you may want to make use of this service if you suspect mortgage fraud related to your home.