Tyrone GA Home Inspections Chief Residential Appraisals

By Mike Dingler | January 31, 2020 |

Residential Appraisals in Tyrone GA

with Steve MacFall of Chiefs Residential Appraisals

Chief Steve MacFall with Chief's Residential Appraisals can provide a fair and accurate appraisal of your home for refinancing, selling, buying or remodeling. Through FireTrackapp.com, Chief MacFall can fulfill any appraisal need you may have. Contact his company through the app today!

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What department do you work for, how long have you worked there and what is your current rank?

Fayette County Fire and EMS

What other special skill/certifications/awards have you earned within the Fire Service? *

GA Smoke Diver, Paramedic, Battalion Chief

Your Business Name and Classification: *

Chief Residential Appraisals, Inc

What does your business offer and what sets you apart from “normal contractors”? *

Real Estate Sales and Appraisals

What is the job you are most proud of that you have done within your business? *

In the last 18 years, I have helped numerous people, find, buy, sell their personal homes and investment properties. I especially enjoy helping fellow public safety members and their families.

What is the funniest thing you have seen while doing an estimate or job? *

I went to do an appraisal on a vacant house and when I walked in a Realtor and guest were having a really good time.

Where do you see your Fire Department career in 5 years? *

I am proudly retired from the fire service.

Where do you see your business in 5 years? *

Continuing to help people buy and sell their homes and investment properties.

What is the best advice you can offer a potential client looking for services like yours in your industry? *

Ask questions, listen to the advice of the experts, and when its time, go for it.

What is your why? (Why do you get up every day and go to the FD or your other job(s)? *

I find real estate to be challenging and exciting. I really enjoy helping others and there is nothing better then being at a closing and seeing the joy on a family's face when they officially own their home. Especially their first home.

If you could change one thing in the business world, Fire Department or private sector, what would it be? *

I would find a way to make public safety less stressful and more rewarding.

FireTrack's Firefighter Fridays Video Transcript

Mike Dingler: Hey everybody, welcome back to another firefighter friday I'm here with Chief Steve McFall and chief thanks for being on the show, good to see you. His name is Steve, but he's my old battalion commander so I can't , I don't feel right, calling him Steve. So he's chief to me like always, even though he's retired now from the fire department. So chief, if you'll tell me a little bit about your fire department career and I know you're a smoke diver and you've got a pretty lengthy career and you retired as a battalion chief, so go ahead and fill us in.

Steve MacFall: Well I did 28 and a half years with a Fayette County Fire and EMS. I was a battalion chief when I retired in the last five years. I was a GA smoke diver and national paramedic for over 25 years, too many certifications to count for all the years. Smoke Diver when i was a lot lighter, a lot healthier and a lot stronger. But absolutely was a once in a lifetime thing and something I've always been proud of.

Residential Property and Home Appraisals in Tyrone GA

Mike Dingler: That's awesome. Congratulations on that. So you're retired now and you run Chief's Residential Appraisals.

Steve MacFall: Chief Residential Appraisals is a real estate appraisal business. We also buy and sell houses, help people buy and sell houses. But our biggest thing we do is residential appraisals. I did appraisals on the side for 15 years before I retired three years ago. So I've been a certified residential real property appraiser is the state title. I've been doing that now for 18 years. I've been a real estate agent for over 10 years now. It was certainly better than having to do more work at another fire department or doing EMS or some of these other things that you just really needed time to get away from, from the fire department. A decompression, this is completely different and you know now, so what I do full time and I worked for myself, my wife works for me and we stay really as busy as we want to be. But to me it's amazing in the real estate market when the market's down. I was busy in 2007 and 2008 when things were really bad, the appraisal business was busy and it's obviously busy now with the real estate market as good as it is.

Mike Dingler: So if somebody downloads the FireTrack App, what is the most likely time that they'll need your services? I'm guessing when they're selling their home or buying a home?

Steve MacFall: There's a lot of reasons somebody might need an appraisal on a house. It's like the house we're standing in is owned by the state. So they need to know what the house is worth so that they can sell it at market price. So that's why I'm here. They send me an order and asked me to price it, I give them a fair market value of the house based on the way we see the house. And then they will, you know, be able to make some financial decisions and decide what's the best route for them. I would say to do an appraisal anytime somebody buys a house and gets a loan, banks always require an appraisal. One of the things that I'm seeing a big trend in now, there's a lot of these (at least in major lenders) companies that advertise on TV. They'll come by your house, they'll give you a cash offer and get you out of your house in two, three weeks.

Mike Dingler: Oh yeah. Like the national people may come out or what is it like, uh, I forgot the names of them.

Steve MacFall: They come in and they just sign on that kind of deal. Yeah. May make an offer. But what's happening is they're offering people so low to what the house is worth, where people are starting to say, Hey I think i'll call and get an appraisal and see if what they're offering is realistic to what the house is really worth.

Mike Dingler: So anybody with the app that needs an appraisal, not just the seller of the house, but if they're thinking they're selling their house or they think they might want a refinance as well.

Residential Property and Home Inspections in GA

Steve MacFall: And what I always tell folks is you need to know if you're doing something with the house, whether you're buying it, you're selling it, you're working on a will or, or in the state or for whatever reason, you need to know what it's worth, what it's actually worth. And it's not going online and using these automated programs that give you a value, they're not looking at your house. They're not comparing apples to apples in your best interests. They're looking at a mass spectrum of lots of sales and data, but you know somebody's house could be pretty rough looking on the outside and then you walk inside and they remodeled the kitchen and the bathroom and have done a lot of things that could increase the value. That's some computer program or somebody sitting behind the desk that doesn't come out and actually look at it. We'll never know. And unfortunately people a lot of times aren't educated to understand that the best way to know what your house is worth is to have somebody come out and look at it, do the necessary due diligence to determine where does it sit within its market.

Mike Dingler: And who better to come out that a public safety servant who trained for 28 years on public safety and especially building construction. So a lot of people don't know the ins and outs of a firefighter, but we train on building construction, not just fire suppression systems, but everything the building is made out of. Firefighters have to know, uh, what they're getting into if the building needs to be entered while on fire, obviously. So that had to help you knowing what you know now.

Residential Appraisals For Refinancing A Home, Selling A Home, Buying A Home Or Updating A Will

Steve MacFall: Absolutely. You know, one of the funny things when you're talking about that is one of the things that I've always done, and I did it back when I was at the fire department and we'd be out doing business inspections and stuff where I walk in every house, I test for smoke detectors. It has nothing to do with the appraisal. It has nothing to do with the value, but to me that's just always one of those things where I said, you know this, this is just something simple just to make sure somebody's being safe. Absolutely. You know, and I love the fire service, but smoke detectors have saved more lives than all the firefighters out there ever have. So it was just always one of those things. I always walk in and I check them and if they don't work, I always tell the homeowner, Hey, your smoke detectors are not working and you're not going to get that on your appraisal.

Mike Dingler: But you're not going to get that kind of a thorough inspection from some other dotcom thing that is looking at your house on Google maps and you're just another number. Absolutely. Yes.

Steve MacFall: Yeah. And I even got into more where I'm looking at CO detectors in houses with gas furnaces and gas appliances because you know, an older home like this one may have natural gas service, but you'd be surprised. Most of them don't have carbon monoxide detectors.

Mike Dingler: Okay, that's true. That's true. That's very important.

Steve MacFall: And it's something simple, but that's just something to me that's always been part of me. There's a firefighter and while I'm retired, it's still something that I always do.

Mike Dingler: Absolutely, it's ingrained in our training. You can't blame us for that. Chief Residential Appraisals here on FireTrack. I appreciate everything you've done. I appreciate you always being here for our clients and thank you so much for signing up. Thank you for being on Firefighter Friday's and we'll see you next time!