Jennifer Quinn Appraisals

10/16/2025

Your "Zestimate" isn't just wrong. It's expensive.
Here's what that free Zillow estimate really costs you:
You see $750k on your screen. You get attached to that number. It becomes YOUR number. You tell friends that number. You make plans based on that number. You NEED that number.
But the market doesn't care about your screen addiction.
The market sees:
Your neighbor's identical house that sold for $675k
The three active listings at $680k sitting for 45 days
The buyer pool that disappears above $700k
The appraisal comps that scream $675k
You list at $750k anyway.
Because Zillow said so.
Week 1: "Testing the market"
Week 4: "Where are the showings?"
Week 8: First price reduction to $725k
Week 12: Desperation drop to $699k
Week 16: Sold for $650k to a wholesaler who smelled blood
The math Zillow won't show you:
Lost carrying costs: $12,000 (4 months)
Lost appreciation: $8,000 (market went up while you went stale)
Lost negotiating power: $5,000 (desperate sellers pay for everything)
Actual loss from overpricing: $25,000 GONE
The cruelest part?
If you'd listed at $675k:
Multiple offers in week one
Bid up to $690k
Closed in 30 days
Moved on with your life
But that would require trusting a professional over an algorithm designed to keep you scrolling, not sell your house.
Your agent tried to tell you. They showed you the comps. The absorption rates. The buyer psychology. The pricing strategy that creates competition instead of crickets.
You showed them your phone.
Here's what Zillow is ACTUALLY good for:
Entertainment
Dreaming
Stalking your ex's house
Wasting time at work
Here's what it's NOT good for:
Pricing your largest asset
Making financial decisions
Replacing 20 years of market expertise
Anything involving actual money
That app isn't free. It's the most expensive app on your phone.
The difference between Zillow and a real agent isn't information. It's interpretation. It's strategy. It's knowing that pricing isn't what you want.
But sure, keep trusting the algorithm that makes money from your clicks, not your success.
Just remember this post when you're on day 127, taking any offer you can get.
“Taken from another post “

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06/18/2020

I just read an article that made me very cranky and I wanted to share my thoughts about it with you all. I am not going to tell you the name of the article or the publication from which it came, but I will tell you that the fact that the story was regurgitated on several "news" outlets (like CNBC) is pretty disturbing.
The title of the article was "3 in 10 Americans missed their June housing payment."
First of all, according to my calendar, today is June 18th. There are still 12 days in this month, so how can you assert that 30% of Americans missed their house payments in June when the month isn't over?
Second, this statement was based on an internet poll of roughly 4,000 homeowners and tenants. Now, according to the most recent census data, there are 331 million people in the US. So this article bases its assertion that 30% of Americans missed their house payment in June on a data set that represents 0.0012% of the population. According to Statista.com, 65.1% of the US population are homeowners. That translates to 215,481 people who own homes. The 4,000 people surveyed represent 1.9% of the number of homeowners in this country and does not even account for the number of renters.
The article then goes on to reveal that of those surveyed, 19% (not 30%) did not make their house payments on time and 11% made partial payments.
This in no way equates to the sensationalist headline that 3 out 10 of Americans missed their house payment.

My problem with this poorly written and misleading article is the fact that it (and many of the other articles found on their site) are little more than fear-mongering sensationalism designed to generate clicks for their website while offering very little real content.

Here's the truth as I see it thus far: We are in the very early stages of a crisis heretofore unknown in our lifetime. For us here in the States, this has been a long three months, and we are nowhere near the end. There is no way to tell how COVID-19 will ultimately impact the housing market. It's very likely that we will see an increase in foreclosures, but I estimate that won't happen until 2021.

The foreclosure process is long, complicated, and expensive, and lenders typically see it as a last resort. For example: I had one house that I appraised five times over three years while the lender tried to restructure the mortgage and seek other options before they finally ended up foreclosing. They received zero payments from the borrowers for three years before they finally sold the house.

My guess at this point is that lenders will be proactive (unlike the crash in 2008 that they were apparently blind-to) and create loan relief programs like HARP and FMERR to defer payments, lower interest rates, and monthly payments, remove penalties and add missed payments onto the back end of loans with no additional fees in order to avoid ending-up with mountains of bad-debt in their portfolios.

I guess what I am saying is please don't buy into the media's attempt to make us a more fearful and divided nation than we already are. If you need advice about whether to buy, sell, refinance, or stay where you are, for the time being, reach out to me. I am a great resource and I love to do research.

Be well, stay safe, and be excellent to each other!
~Jen

06/17/2020

Apparently, I am a woman that needs a schedule. I had a late cancellation for today's inspection. Since I have been so busy lately, I decided not to fill the slot with something else, thinking an office day would be great. I would get so many jobs done, clear out my inbox, start that class on ANSI standards for home measuring I am taking to add a certification to my license, maybe start on my personal income taxes (finally), run some errands...

Guys, I got one job done today! ONE! It's disgraceful, really. I did manage to get my inbox taken care of, but other than that, ONE job!

Sometimes being your own boss is tricky, especially when you hate confrontation and don't want to fight with your employee (me!) or criticize them for their work ethic!

How is everyone doing out there? Still on lockdown? Practicing safe social distancing when out in the world? I am still wearing gloves and masks for all my inspections and staying as far from homeowners as possible. They don't make it easy sometimes! The number of people who want to shake my hand, shadow me through their house, and offer me homemade cookies is mind-boggling!

Be good to each other!

02/18/2020

It's been a long time since I posted. This Winter has gotten away from me. I am currently booking into March and completing 8-10 appraisals a week. I'm blessed with work. The local real estate market (both in Lane and Douglas counties) is very active and I am doing a fairly balanced mix of purchases and re-finances.

As I said the last time I posted, the well of work seems bottomless. I know that this isn't true, and I find myself being way more ant than grasshopper when it comes to balancing the work/life relationship.

I am getting ready to buy my first investment property and it is TERRIFYING!!! I find myself working more and more so that I can have reserves squirreled-away so I can pay my taxes and have enough money in the bank to make the necessary mortgage payments for at least 6 months. I'm not expecting catastrophe to befall me, per se, but I sure don't want to be in a situation where if I need it, I don't have it!

On another note, I got a reconsideration of value request from a borrower for a job that I did about a month ago. For some reason, these requests always bother me; partially because this homeowner is essentially telling me that they know how to do my job better than I do, which I know is not true; and partially because when I was at this house I had a lengthy conversation with these homeowners about how much they had spent on exterior improvements to the property and how little that translates to an increase in market value. We spoke for at least 30 minutes on the things that do impact value, none of which they had done to their home, and they told me they understood what I was saying and even thanked me for the information I had given them.

In honesty, this is only the third or fourth reconsideration request I have gotten since I struck out on my own in 2014. That's 3 or 4 out of 1,700 appraisals I have completed in the past 6 years. I guess that's not a bad percentage, so I should just respond to it and let it go.

I have been having some great conversations with a local Realtor who has shown me the house I'm currently considering buying. We have had some very candid and in-depth conversations about the Realtor/Appraiser relationship and how contentious it can sometimes be. It's been very eye-opening, and I am so glad to have found a peer in this community that I have connected with and with whom I feel I can have open honest conversations. I didn't realize it was something I was missing until I found it.

I don't really have a lot more tonight. I am in the process of finishing a job I was supposed to have done by 5:00 pm today. After which I will spend 3-4 hours getting ready for the 4 inspections I have in Sutherlin tomorrow.

As usual, I have every intention of posting more frequently. I make no promises at this point!

Thank you all for reading. I'll be back as soon as I can.

~Jen

11/12/2019

Well, we're roughly 2/3 of the way through Fall, and it feels more like Winter every day.

Quick update, I got the appraisal for my house back. It came very close to the value I estimated in my head. The appraiser did some things differently than I might have, but I can't honestly say it's not my own internal bias that would have made the value higher. That makes me laugh because I am always joking about how people think their value should be higher because they raised their kids in that house or buried the family dog (or fish) in the backyard, and here I am looking at this house through the eyes of a homeowner.

Today I find myself with thoughts scattering like Autumn leaves on a gusty road. There's a lot going on: On a macro level, in this world of turmoil and unrest, which makes me sad and I don't want to think of it. Like Scarlett O'Hara, I'll think of it tomorrow.; and on the Micro, in my own world both personal and professional. This is not the forum for discussions of personal turmoil, so I will save that for another place and time.

On a professional level, interest rates are rising, causing a natural slow-down in the Real Estate market. This is coupled with the annual decrease in inventory that usually happens with the falling leaves, earlier sunsets, and rainy days.
My job though seems never-ending. Because appraisals are needed for all types of Real Estate transactions, the slow down in sales does not much impact me. It seems likely that, if I wanted, I could work constantly all of the hours I am awake during the day (and night), and the well of work would not run dry.

For me, this is often a tempting, enticing and dangerous trap/refuge. Since I started this business in 2014, I have often been guilty of using work as both a shield and a cloak-of-invisibility of sorts. A way to hide from the world, from my life, from myself. Who could argue with a person claiming the necessity of working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, when they are trying to get a fledgling endeavor off the ground? No one, that's who. It was perfectly acceptable if not outright admired, by those around me. With that acceptance and praise for my dedication and apparent success, it was easy for me to wrap and wrap and wrap myself so tightly in that cloak that the me I had been had almost disappeared.

I'm going to stop there, lest this become too long (probably too late, but whaddaya do?). I have some other thoughts I'd like to expand upon next time.

I think I am going to start that blog I spoke of weeks ago and will probably use these posts as my initial entries. I will link to it here when I have done so.

As always, thanks for reading. Even if it is just my mom and Auntie, I appreciate your time and your feedback.

10/27/2019

Today I find myself in an interesting position that I hadn't considered before: Tuesday, we are having an appraisal done on our house.
We haven't had one since the last time we refinanced, back in 2004. I was a Contractor and Realtor then and knew next to nothing about the appraisal process. I was the typical obnoxious homeowner that, these days, I try to hide my eye-rolls at, and remain patient with. I followed the appraiser around throughout the entire process. He was probably very irritated with me but didn't show it at all. I can appreciate that now, knowing what I know and doing what I do.
The interesting thing to me is this: I find myself looking at my house not as a homeowner, but as an appraiser. I am wondering what Quality and Condition ratings she will give. I actually busted out a ladder and some exterior paint this morning, when it was 38 degrees outside, to touch up some trim paint that is looking shabby. I installed a smoke/CO detector, knowing that they are required by law. I thought about double-strapping my water heater. Charlie re-caulked the tub.
As an appraiser, I know what I would be looking for if I walked into this house. I am curious and sort of excited to see what this appraisal looks like.
I'm also nervous. I have been doing this for more than a decade now, and I feel like I am pretty good at my job. I met a lot of appraisers from all over the country in September at the Appraisal Summit in Las Vegas. It was so interesting to talk with others in my field and exchange ideas about the way we do our jobs. I am not familiar with the appraiser coming to my house on Tuesday. I want to know who trained her, how long she's been doing this, what kind of continuing education classes she's taken, whether or not she's from Lane County. So many questions!
I guess it's probably a good thing I will be in Roseburg doing my own inspections while she's here!
Anyway, just some thoughts for a not-so-lazy Sunday. Thanks for reading! Feel free to share any appraisal experiences you've had here. I would love to read them.

10/14/2019

Happy Fall! The temperature is dropping, the leaves are changing, and the days are getting shorter. I've been thinking a lot lately about change; making some changes in my life, having changes I never could have anticipated thrust upon me, the way I am changing both personally and professionally as I get older...
The most recent change that I do have control over is my website! Well, actually the fact that I have a website! It's only taken me 5 years! It's pretty basic, but it's a fluid thing that I can change (there's that word again) as my business grows, and I move towards my goals. There's a link to my new website here on this page, so I invite you to go and check it out when you have a chance. It's https://jqappraisalsinc.com.
Another change I have been pondering lately is teaching. When I was young, I thought that was where I would end up. I have always admired people who chose that profession, as it often seems like a thankless task. At some point, I determined that it was not for me. I feel like I don't have the patience needed to shape young minds.
Lately though, especially since the I attended recently, I have been having lots of ideas for classes I think would be beneficial for people in my industry, and have started hashing out the barest of outlines for a class about the appraisal process for Realtors. I feel like there is animosity caused by a lack of understanding between Realtors and Appraisers, which is a shame. We should be allies.
So, that's where my head is at right now. I am fortunate enough to be positively overloaded with work and am currently booked through the rest of October and into November.
I just wanted to touch base, let you all know about the new website. Feel free to offer any feedback. Especially those of you who have more experience with running websites than I do (which could be almost everyone!)
My plan in the next month or so is to get a blog going as well. I'd like to talk about all things Real Estate related, and maybe throw in a few personal observations as well. Once I do, I'll let you know where you can find it. I'm sure it will make for fascinating reading on the cold nights ahead!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Jen

Jennifer Quinn Appraisals, Inc specializing in residential and commercial OR Real Estate Property Appraisals.

08/29/2019

It's been a busy Summer! I am now FHA Certified, and have added both FHA and USDA loans to my repertoire. I am constantly learning and trying to stay current with all of the changes in the appraisal universe! To that end: I'm joining fellow appraisers at the Crossroads in Las Vegas…We hope to see you there. I am looking forward to meeting some of the folks I've only spoken to or e-mailed with over the past 11 years, and seeing what new tech is out there helping to move our industry forward.

12/22/2018

As 2018 comes to a close I'd like to take a moment to say thank you for all of the support I've received this year. Owning your own business can be tough, but it is incredibly rewarding to look back over a year in which I have completed 318 appraisals for 45 different companies. It only took me 39 years to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up! I am so thankful for this career that I find fascinating, stimulating and rewarding. As the year ends, I am wishing all of you that same sense of satisfaction and peace that comes from knowing you are finally where you are supposed to be.
Happy Holidays to you and yours, may the best days you've ever known be the worst days you see in the coming year.

~Jen