Kevin Slemko of Midtown Appraisal Group FAQs

Appraisals: The 5 questions we’re asked most often

For many years, as a practicing appraiser, I didn't have a huge amount of contact with homeowners or residents. A financial institution would call with an appraisal request, I'd make arrangements with the real estate agent to pick up the keys or access the lockbox, and do the inspection when the owners or residents were at work. It was left to the real estate agent or mortgage provider to explain the appraisal process to their clients. But these days, more…...
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how are appraisals created

What goes into an appraised value?

It's not just a comparison to the house next door. It happens to every appraiser, often once a week: Someone involved in the property buying and selling process says something like "Yeah, this appraisal won't be that hard. The house across the street sold a month ago and it's pretty much the same layout, so we expect the value of our property to be about that price - well, a bit more probably, since prices are going up so fast!"…...
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How Ontario farms are appraised

How are Ontario farms valued?

Per-acre farm values in Canada have been rising more slowly than residential home prices (about 5% in 2019 vs 2018), but, like residential properties, values are largely dependent on regional locations and southern Ontario values can be as much as 35% higher than the provincial average. With as much of 75% of Canadians' wealth tied up in real estate, and given that we're at the beginning of the largest generational transfer of wealth in Canadian history, the next decade will…...
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Midtown Appraisal Group home appraisal checklist

Preparing for an appraisal of your home: A handy checklist

A few simple tips to help your appraisal go more smoothly "We're refinancing our mortgage and they're sending out an appraiser this week. What should we do to ensure that our appraisal goes smoothly?" As we've discussed before, professional appraisers are trained to see beyond a few dirty dishes in the sink and even that fucshia accent wall in the living room that you painted to celebrate the Barbie movie, so you don't have to 'prepare' for your appraisal by…...
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Kevin Slemko AACI appraiser
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Appraisal delays driving you bonkers?

There are a bunch of reasons why they're happening. If you've been involved in the sale of a residential property in Ontario in the past 3 years - whether as a vendor, purchaser, real estate agent, mortgage broker or lawyer - you know that residential appraisals seem to take longer than they used to. Unfortunately, the current extended timelines for residential appraisals are a result of several different factors, not all of which are easily solved. However, the more you…...
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Midtown Appraisal Group on the current real estate market

House prices in Ontario: Do your research

It's not unusual to be thinking about moving. Whether you've been working from home, are an essential worker, or have been furloughed, you - like most Canadians - have probably been spending a lot more time at home than usual in the past few weeks. And it's funny how spending so much time looking at the same four walls gets you thinking about what it'd be like to move. Depending on who you talk to, now is either a 'great'…...
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Hamilton appraiser Kevin Slemko on Canadian real estate

House prices in Canada: An overview

Well, it's that time of year again: The time when experts and pundits everywhere look back at the year that was and try to make sense of it - and figure out what we can expect in the year to come. With that in mind, we wanted to share a couple of infographics we came across this week. Canadian house prices by major cities Zoocasa produced an interesting graphic based on CREA house price information on a month-by-month basis over…...
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