A typical appraisal appointment will take 20 to 30 minutes.  An appraiser will look at both the interior and exterior of the subject home.  The appraiser may need to measure the exterior of the home.  If a survey is available this may eliminate the need to measure.  The appraisal report will contain as much information on the subject property as possible.  Included will be a description of the exterior of the home (ranch, brick, ect.), a description of the interior (ceramic tile, drywall, ect.), and any additional features (pools, barns, ect.)  There is also a section of the report which describes the neighborhood and lot size, shape, and other features.  There is a section of the appraisal that will give a room count of the house (4 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, ect.) and lists the square footage of your house. 

Then the process of valuation begins.  When applicable a Cost Approach is provided.  The appraiser uses the Boeckh method of producing a cost to reconstruct the home.  This approach is not always applicable.  In the Income Approach homes that are similar to the subject being leased are considered and the income value of the property is considered.  The approach is seldom used because most single family properties are not used strictly for income producing abilities. 

The Market Data approach (Sales Comparison Approach), is the one approach that is always used.  In this approach properties that have sold recently or as most recently as possible are reviewed.  Then three or more properties that are in neighborhoods equal to the subject, are close in size and room count, and have as many of the extras or other features as the subject are compared to each other.  The appraiser will make adjustments where the properties differ and a final value estimate will be reached based on the range of adjusted sales prices.