Hello Everyone!

Welcome to BirminghamAppraisalBlog.com.  My name is Tom Horn and I am a residential real estate appraiser in the greater Birmingham, Alabama area.  I have set up this blog to pass along information I gather on a daily basis that may be of benefit to someone.  I may sometimes run into something in my work which I address here and, I hope, may help others that may have a similar issue and needed to find out more information about it.  In addition, I may comment on something I saw that may be humorous or informational.  I see a lot of funny things, which is good, because as they say “laughter is the best medicine”.

You can find out more about my professional credentials in the “about” tab above, but for now I just wanted to tell you a little about my personal life.  I am 45 years old, married, and have two children, a boy and a girl.  In addition, we just got our first dog from a local animal rescue.  I’ve always heard that shelter animals are always the best and “Cassie” has not disappointed us in that respect.  Although we have only had her for 1 week, she has been great.  It’s amazing how much love an animal can give considering they have not had a very happy life.   Besides work, I spend the rest of my time doing family things.  We are blessed to live in a great area for camping and doing outdoor activities.  This is also an area that has great college football tradition, so we have a great time during college football season.  Finally, we are blessed to have a great church family, one which helps us to continually grow in our love and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I hope that the information I cover here can be of benefit to others.  Whether it be information regarding how to maximize the appraisal value of your  home to a list of the top five things that a home has to have to pass an FHA appraisal inspection.  Another area I am looking forward to developing is one on market trends.  Each time I produce an appraisal I perform study on the price levels and sales and listing history of homes within the neighborhood.  This may be helpful to others in the neighborhood and I will attempt to publish these for public viewing.  I always welcome suggestions on topics to cover, so please let me know if you have any.  Thanks for reading!!