Customer Reviews

Real Estate Appraisal from A to Z: Real Estate Appraiser, Homeowner, Home Buyer and Seller Survival Kit Series (Real Estate from a to Z)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My career has been real estate appraisals for over 17 years now and I can confidently say that I have read at least 50 books on the topic of how to appraise real estate. This book was very impressive in the content and the layout and how everything is explained by the author. If you are a beginner or have many years of experience appraising homes (like me), you will be very happy if you read this book. Everything from the basics of the business, to details on the Direct Sales Comparison Approach, the Cost Approach, and the Income Approach, to details on how to make money as a real estate appraiser in your own business, are all covered very well and explained clearly - for beginners or experienced real estate professionals.
There were many additional topics covered by this book that I have not found in other appraisal books that I have read. Some of these topics were aspects of the business that would take you many years to learn and come across, or at least I know that was my experience in this business. There is good, detailed information about the type of appraisal accounts you can get to earn money in this business.
If you are a non-appraiser just looking for a book with a great overall explanation of how to appraise your own home or condominium, then this is the book for you. You'll find the book is detailed and easy to read and understand. What you learn should save you thousands of dollars in headaches and time by not making the mistakes that the book will warn you about. It's always better to learn from experienced appraisers, like myself or a book like this, since they will help you prevent making many errors when you buy or sell your house. You cannot rely on your real estate agent or broker since I can tell you from many years of experience - they don't know anything about how to determine the value of a house or condo the way a professional appraiser can do it. I hope this review is helpful to you. Happy house shopping if you're a home buyer! Good luck on your appraisal exam if you're an appraiser buying the book to help with getting your license.

Overall the book covers many aspects of real estate appraising and the business of appraisers. I bought the book since it was recommended to me by a friend who is an appraiser. The book first teaches some of the basics of the appraisal business and then goes into an abbreviated version of how to inspect a home. The inspection process and advice given is necessary since there are many aspects of a home that need to be evaluated to properly determine the market value as compared to other homes that have sold recently in that same neighborhood. I was not aware of how detailed an appraiser should be when he inspects the condition of a home to do a proper appraisal report. The information I learned was extremely useful to me for evaluating my own home.
The book led into the appraisal procedure and covered many topics dealing with single family home and condominium appraisals. The book does not cover appraisals based upon the income approach which refers to office buildings and commercial buildings. But that's fine with me because to appraise commercial properties and office buildings is not what I was looking for.
The appraisal process covered by the book is very thorough and the content walks you through the entire procedure step by step. The main aspect in the appraisal process of homes in how to get information from town hall and recent sales similar to the home or condo you are appraising. This I found was covered very well by the author.
The book walks you through how to compare all of the important and relevant aspects of a home or condo to recent sales of similar homes and condos, known as the sales comparison approach. The details discussed are realistic with no "fluff" involved and the author gets to the point with giving the reader real life examples that he has experienced.
The procedures covered for town hall were extremely helpful also. I never knew how important it is to be able to get all of the available public information and records on a home or condo before doing a proper appraisal. The book discusses many things to check during this process so you leave no stones unturned and don't get hit with any surprises later.
The book is written in a way that I found was easy to understand and enjoyable to read. I didn't want to be bored with technical details and this book was just what I was looking for since it wasn't too technical or boring. I have read other books on appraising that are very formal in their approach but they don't give you the real life examples that make the book interesting to read and informative in a way that is truly realistic about appraising.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in appraising homes and condominiums. If you are interested in appraising office buildings and commercial buildings then you will need a more technical (and boring) book. I'm happy with my purchase and hope my review is helpful to others.

Real Estate Appraising from A to Z
By Guy Cozzi
Nemmar Publishing - 1992-2002
ISBN: 1-887450-02-5
225 pps. ...
Reviewed by Denise M. Clark 3/03
Denise's Pieces Author Site & Book Reviews
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Real estate appraisers are in demand these days, and get paid hundreds of dollars for their services. The best thing about becoming an appraiser is that you don't need a Master's Degree or any special schooling to become one. What you do need, however, is knowledge. In his extensively researched and illustrated Real Estate Appraising from A to Z, author Cozzi sets out to give anyone interested in moving into this quickly growing field the tools he or she will need, not only to do the job, but to do it right.
Mr. Cozzi starts with the very basics. For instance, the purpose, benefits and explanation of what an appraiser is, what he does and how to become a certified appraiser. From there, he guides the reader step by step through what appraisers look for when inspecting homes, both their exteriors and interiors. He explains how to determine home values of not only single-dwelling homes, but condominiums as well.
But Mr. Cozzi doesn't stop there. In basic, easily understood terms, he explains such topics as depreciation, the different types of home mortgages and appraisal accounts such as original home loan and refinance loan appraisals and foreclosure appraisals.
Real Estate Appraising from A to Z is just what the title implies. Mr. Cozzi's ability to instruct without `talking down' to his audience is a plus and a rare treat - even for those who know absolutely nothing about the `home' business. Homeowners would do well to have a copy of this book on hand before obtaining an appraisal, and use Cozzi's inspection guidelines within the actual appraising section of the book to obtain the most favorable value for their homes. Mr. Cozzi's easy to read, friendly writing style offers expert and timely advice and instruction for both homeowners and aspiring appraisers. If you want to work for yourself, earn extra money, or increase the value of your home, this edition is a definite must.

"Real Estate Appraising from A to Z" delivers up exactly what it promises - a thorough, understandable course on appraising. The author discusses appraisals as a business and how to get into the appraisal business, but it is much more that just that. If you are looking at purchasing property for investing. If you are looking at purchasing a new home, wanting to know the value of vacant property, etc. this is an excellent book. It covers all the bases when valuing a property. Some of the subjects discussed include community factors, market influences, potential hidden problems and how to find them, building inspection, the cost approach to valuation, the income approach to valuation, and writing a proposal. Given the thorough coverage and easy to understand writing style, this book is a highly recommended purchase for anyone who might be interested in appraisals (either doing them or understanding someone else's), or investing in real estate.

We have one of the busiest appraisal and home inspection companies in our area. We exclusively work for mortgage lenders and banks who are very picky about getting high quality reports and evaluations. We have been using this "A to Z" appraisal book and the "A to Z" inspection book for years as MANDATORY reading for all of our appraisers and home inspectors when we hire and train them. It's the simplest to understand and the most thorough covering all necessary topics that we have found on the market. This book will tell you the realities of evaluating real estate without giving you a bunch of fluff - that's why we like it so much. Our appraisers and inspectors get years of expertise and knowledge in one book without having to make the mistakes they would to learn from their own experiences. It saves us a lot of time in getting our employees up to speed with doing professional reports and evaluations for our banking clients. We can't afford to send our clients poor quality reports since there's a lot of competition in our business. This book keeps us at the top of our game and keeps our clients happy.

This was my choice for the book to teach me about real estate appraisals. Before my husband and I did a very expensive renovation and remodeling of our home, we wanted to find out what the sales price of the house could be if the work was done. Since we are not appraisers we wanted to learn what a real estate appraiser does and looks for to decide on what a house is worth in the market. This book told us everything that we wanted to know and a lot more. You do not have to be someone with years of experience to be able to understand how to appraise real estate with this book. We learned so much helpful advice and techniques that my husband and I realized the home remodeling and improvements we were planning to spend a fortune for, would have not been a good investment. This book showed us how to determine the value using a what-if scenario that professional appraisers use. We learned that only 70% of the money we were planning to spend would have been a good investment to increase the sales price of our home. The extra 30% would have been an over-improvement in the appraisal lingo which means that we would have been over-spending on the remodeling without getting the increased value and sales price for our home. When you are talking about a $115,000.00 remodeling and improvement job, then that 30% this book saved us is certainly something that my husband and I are very happy to have learned. This book was a great investment for us and has given us a phenomenal return on the purchase price in savings.

The author talks straight and doesn't sugar coat anything in this book which I found to be very interesting and different from most books on this topic. Other books I've read on real estate are very boring and formal in their approach. The author of this book talks to you as though he was an expert advising his own family members. I truly enjoyed reading it and hearing all of the stories from the authors experience as a real estate appraiser and investor. There was so much information that warned me about what to look for when buying and selling a house I couldn't believe how helpful it was to me. Much of the information talks about what a Realtor will never tell you but is absoulutely essential if you want to maximize your profits and eliminate headaches. My only regret is not having read this book a long time ago when I bought and sold my first house! Highly recommend it and I would give it a 10 star rating.

For someone who is looking to get a good understanding of how to estimate the market value of their home, then this book should be your choice. Although it is written to train professional real estate appraisers you can certainly learn a lot of good information from it even if you're a beginner. After reading this book and speaking with some Realtors in my area I realized that I had more of an understanding of real estate appraising concepts that the Realtors had!! If you want to make sure you don't sell your home for too low or buy it for too high a price, then read this book and don't just rely on what the Realtor tells you is a good price.

Before I listed my house for sale I bought this book to learn what price to tell the realtors I would accept. A few years ago I was going to sell my house and the brokers that came by wanted to list my house for a lower price than my neighbor's house sold for a month earlier. I decided not to sell back then. Now I put my home on the market again and this time I learned why my asking price was correct based upon what I learned in this book. When the brokers came by I made sure they realized that I had good reasons to justify the sales price I wanted to get. That alone earned me a lot of money in the final selling price.

I'm not an appraiser but by getting the concepts that they use from this book I was able to know enough about it to help sell my house. It was great advice and the book is great and enjoyable to read since it's not boring! Get this if you buy or sell real estate since you will learn a lot.

This is a fantastic book to learn how to decide what the price and market value is for you house or condominium or rental property. There was a ton of great and helpful advice that was excellent and easy to read and learn from. Many appraiser books are too technical and written only for professional appraisers but this book is written in a way that anyone can benefit from. When I wanted to sell my house I knew that I should not rely on what a real estate broker tells me since they just want to earn a commission. So I decided to read up on how to decide what price to sell my house and was able to do that properly with what I learned in this book. Great book for anyone interested in real estate. Highly recommended if you want to maximize your real estate profits and have a top appraiser walk you through the process every step of the way.