When shopping for a product or service, the buyer naturally desires to save as much money as possible. And so, in the world of business, the advantage often goes to the provider who can offer the lowest prices for the best product. For appraisal services in our coverage area, that business is Spurgeon Appraisals.

We provide the highest quality appraisal services at the most competitive prices.

Be leery of low cost appraisals.

You may find appraisal services which advertise slightly lower prices than us. However, you should consider how those lower prices are possible.

Businesses must make a profit, and if they slash their prices, you can be sure that they are saving money elsewhere, usually at the expense of quality. Paying less than market rate for an appraisal may result in receiving poor customer service and an inferior product.

Most appraisals are ordered out of necessity and need to be accurate, but cheap appraisals could display lazy research, fail to meet your needs, or ignore legal appraisal standards.

Why should you order from us.

Spurgeon Appraisals has always been dedicated to thorough research and prompt service. You can read about the quality of our service below.

Our customers receive dedicated work for every dollar they spend. Customer Reviews shown below, and our ever-growing coverage area, prove this.

You get what you pay for, and at Spurgeon Appraisals, you pay for quality service.

When done correctly, an appraisal requires more than simply driving by the property and giving a "ball park figure" of what it might be worth. In fact, appraisers are not allowed to give estimates based on such cursory examinations.

Spurgeon Appraisals is dedicated to providing our customers with the highest quality appraisals, worth the price you pay for them. Our appraisal process involves six stages.

Stage 1: Fee and Contract

Once we determine that we can appraise your property, we will establish your fee and have you sign a contract for our services, so that you understand exactly what we will do for you and to prevent any surprises. For financial institutions, an engagement letter usually takes the place of a contract.

Stage 2: Your Input

When you first contact us, be ready to describe your property to us as well as possible. We appreciate those customers who provide us with deeds, legal descriptions, land surveys, and tax receipts. The more information we have from you at the beginning, the less we need to find later. If our client is a financial institution or attorney’s office, we usually contact the owner or buyer of the property, so we can interview them for this kind of information.

Stage 3: Property Inspection

Normally, we must see your property to appraise it. During this inspection, we will take photographs, measure any buildings being appraised, and ask you any questions we have developed about your property.

Stage 4: Research at the Courthouse

We almost always need to visit your county courthouse during the appraisal process. This allows us to do research into the history of the property: its previous owners, dates of sale, and past sale prices. The courthouse also keeps other records helpful to us, and this is usually where we find any details lacking up to this point.

Stage 5: Sales Research

To determine the value of your property, we must compare it to other, similar properties which have sold recently. Finding truly comparable sales is not always easy. Spurgeon Appraisals keeps a growing database of sales, but sometimes we must do additional research to find properties truly like your own.

Stage 6: Writing the Report

By this point, we should have all the information we need, and we can now write the appraisal report and estimate a value for your property. Usually this stage will only take a few days, since the most time-consuming work has been done already.

At Spurgeon Appraisals, we care most about providing quality appraisal services. This not only means that you receive prompt service and accurate reports, but also that you are treated respectfully and attentively through the whole process. We can promise you these things for several reasons:

Larger Staff

Most appraisal firms are one-man shops, just a single appraiser with no assistants to help him. This makes it difficult for most appraisers to give due attention to their customers, perform all necessary research, and finish their reports in a timely manner.

In contrast to this, Spurgeon Appraisals employs four appraisers and three office assistants. So we can provide you with prompt, well-informed appraisals, and yet still speak to you at length when you call our office with questions.

Thorough Research

A good appraisal depends on research, not only of the property being appraised, but also of recent sales comparable to the property being appraised. So, at Spurgeon Appraisals, much of our time is spent in research. Our appraisal staff is constantly researching the market for residential, agricultural, and commercial sales. When you call us, we likely will already have what sales we will need to appraise your property.

Detailed Analysis

When appraising a property, any overlooked information could result in a loss of value to your property, so attention to detail is very important. You will see our attention to detail from the moment you first order your appraisal. This will continue as we inspect your property, research county records, and prepare the final appraisal report.

Special Focus

Each of our appraisers focuses his work on a certain kind of property, whether residential, agricultural, or commercial. Limiting ourselves to specific kinds of properties allows us to become more experienced at appraising them, which greatly increases the quality of our services. We have experience in appraising all the following:

And more...

Spurgeon Appraisals has embraced modern technology as much as possible to help us complete your appraisal in an efficient, accurate manner.

The list below represents the technology most commonly used by our appraisers, but we are always looking for new ways to speed up the process of completing appraisals to save you time and money.

Software

From the time you order your appraisal, we use a variety of software to help us learn about your property and begin estimating its market value.

Various mapping programs are of great help, and Google Earth gives us remarkably clear images when we need to view your property in detail from the office, both from above and from street view.

We have also made extensive use of spreadsheets which not only present data clearly but also perform intricate calculations to help us assess the value of soil types and buildings more quickly than we could before.

Online Records

Much information relevant to an appraisal can be found through the internet. Many county courthouses have made the effort to put their records online, and this can allow us to gather information from the office rather than driving to the courthouse. 

Another helpful resource are the Multiple Listing Services (MLS) which post property listings online, making the search for comparable sales much easier. Both of these online services reduce the time we spend on your appraisal.

Mobile Devices

Mobile phones and electronic tablets have become the equivalent of portable computers, and our appraisers often make deliberate use of these devices for everything from photographing the property, to note-taking, to accessing our office's server from remote locations.

Measuring Tools

The measuring tape of yesterday has been replaced by measuring devices using lasers to take consistent, accurate measurements of buildings. The process of measuring a house or shed has been made much easier, leading to shorter, more convenient inspection times. It also lets us get back to the office more quickly to finish your appraisal report.

Programs for Sales and Appraisals

To keep things moving quickly and efficiently, we make use of standardized form-based software both for managing our sale databases and writing appraisal reports. These programs do more than provide a fill-in-the-blank approach to compiling data: they assist in calculations as well. For residential reports, we make use of programs from A LA MODE, inc. Agricultural sales and reports are written with the AgWare programs DataLog and ClickForms. For commercial sales and reports, we use Datacomp and its companion program Edge. All of these are widely used in the appraisal profession.

PDF Reports

In the past, appraisal reports needed to be printed, and you needed to wait for them to arrive via mail or come to our office to get them yourself. But thanks to email, we can email you a PDF of your finished appraisal report so you can get the results even sooner. This also allows us to reduce your fee, since we do not need to pay for printing and shipping. All PDF copies of appraisal reports bear the signature and seal of the appraiser, and clients may print as many copies of the report as they desire. Most of our clients make use of this service.