Why does Unison require a home appraisal and is it accurate?

A home appraisal is a report from a qualified professional that estimates the value of a home. When you buy a home, you will usually hire an appraiser to visit the home, review its condition and characteristics, find comparable properties that have recently sold in the area, and provide both you and the seller of the home with a fair estimate of its value.

At Unison, we require home appraisals to provide an accurate valuation for your equity sharing agreement. To obtain an unbiased valuation, we use Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs).

AMCs are far-and-away the preferred means for obtaining appraisals in real estate transactions. They provide a “firewall” between financial institutions and appraisers, as required by federal guidelines.

Please also note that the appraisal may return a value in which Unison is unable to invest. In those cases a Unison equity sharing agreement may not be available for you.

Note: after an AMC provides appraised value for your home, Unison applies a 5.0% Risk Adjustment to account for appraisal uncertainty, and to deliver your funds more quickly.

Costs of Appraisals: In addition to our standard 3.9% transaction fee, customers who obtain an equity sharing agreement from Unison are responsible for the cost of their home appraisal. (There is no appraisal fee for customers who choose not to work with Unison). If you happen to have a recent appraisal that meets standard criteria, let us know and Unison will consider using that one instead.