Hybrid Value
Four inspection scopes, compared
Inspection scope

Not every appraisal means somebody walks through your house.

Four levels of inspection sit behind the word appraisal, and the lender picks which one the loan needs.

Full interior, exterior only, desktop and hybrid. Same profession, same standards, very different amounts of looking.

An open laptop glowing on a dark desk at dusk beside a fan of printed property photographs and a coffee cup.
The four

What each one actually involves

The value opinion is the appraiser's either way. What changes is how they gathered the facts underneath it.

Most complete

Full interior and exterior

The appraiser walks the property inside and out, measures, photographs every room and rates condition first hand. This is the traditional appraisal and the one behind most purchase loans.

Who sees the house
The appraiser
Typical use
Purchases, most FHA work
Exterior only

Drive by

The appraiser views the property from the street, photographs the front and confirms it exists and matches records. The interior is assumed from records and prior data rather than observed.

Who sees the house
The appraiser, outside only
Typical use
Some refinances, portfolio review
No site visit

Desktop

The appraiser never attends. The report is built from public records, listing data, prior photographs and comparable sales. Everything rests on how good that existing data is.

Who sees the house
Nobody, on this order
Typical use
Lower risk refinances
Split job

Hybrid, also called bifurcated

Somebody else visits and collects the property data, photographs and measurements. The appraiser then analyses that data and forms the value opinion without attending.

Who sees the house
A trained data collector
Typical use
Where speed and coverage matter
The trade

What you gain and what you give up

Lighter scopes exist because a full inspection is not always proportionate to the risk. A low loan to value refinance on a tract home in a well documented subdivision is a very different problem from a purchase of a custom property on acreage.

What you gain is speed and lower cost. What you give up is first hand observation. A desktop report cannot know about the water damage in a back bedroom, because nobody looked. Whether that matters depends entirely on the property and the loan.

One thing does not change. The appraiser signs the report either way, and remains responsible for the opinion under the same professional standards.

Certified appraisers

People who do the full version

When the property is complex or the number really matters, a full inspection by a certified appraiser is the version worth paying for.

Arizona

TyCorp Inc is Tyler Kane, a Certified Residential Appraiser on the FHA roster covering north Phoenix and the northeast Valley.

TyCorp Inc, north Phoenix
Utah

Apex Appraising is Weston Groll, a Utah Certified Residential Appraiser working 8 counties from Ogden to Provo.

Apex Appraising, Utah
Nationwide

Pocket Appraisal arranges residential valuation work nationally.

Pocket Appraisal
Questions

Common questions

Is a desktop appraisal a real appraisal?
Yes. It is a licensed appraiser's opinion of value, signed by them and produced under the same professional standards. What differs is the scope of work. The appraiser did not inspect the property, and the report has to disclose that, along with the assumptions it rests on.
Who is the person who shows up for a hybrid appraisal?
A property data collector. They photograph, measure and record condition, then pass that to the appraiser who performs the analysis. They are not forming an opinion of value and are typically not the licensed appraiser signing the report.
Can I ask for a full inspection instead?
On a lender ordered appraisal, the scope is set by the lender and the loan program, not by the borrower. If you are ordering privately, you choose the scope yourself, and for anything unusual a full interior inspection is generally worth it.
Is a drive by less accurate?
It rests on more assumptions, which is a different thing from being wrong. For a standard house in a well documented neighbourhood with reliable records, an exterior report can land very close. For an unusual property, or one whose condition has changed, unobserved interior condition is exactly where the risk sits.
Get in touch

Not sure which one you were given?

Describe what arrived and we will tell you which scope it was.