Curbed University delivers insider tips and non-boring advice on how to buy, sell, or rent a home or apartment. Additional questions welcomed to dc@curbed.com.
Why won’t the agent give me suggestions on who the appraiser or inspector should be?
One of the fallouts from the housing crisis is that people found out appraisers and inspectors were being influenced by the agents representing the sale. Thus, they could get themselves in trouble for telling you which appraiser to use. As an aside, during the credit boom when houses were selling so fast many appraisers from the far-reaching suburbs came to DC to do inspections without having too much experience in this very unique market. Just about any city, but especially one with such extreme levels of socio-economic status as DC, is going to have a broad spectrum of housing inventory. It will take someone who has spent at least a few years working in this town to provide you with something accurate, so try to find out the places they have worked most for the past few years before asking them to do the job.
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