Q: We are planning to refinance our mortgage, but we’re concerned that several refinancing deals and even home sales in our neighborhood have recently fallen out of escrow because their appraisals came in too low for the bank to justify making the loan. What can we do to make sure that our home is appraised at the highest value possible?

A: Several readers like you have been asking similar questions, especially because values in many communities remain far below those of a year or two ago, and lenders — unlike in the past — are now under pressure from regulators to ensure that the properties they finance or refinance today are actually worth the amount that they’re willing to lend.

You can do several things to help ensure that your property appraises at the highest value possible. First, because appraisers check local sale prices when determining how much your own property is worth, it’s wise to contact a local real estate agent before applying for the loan and ask for a list of recent sales in the area. Also, ask the agent if any sale prices that seem low may have been caused by unusual circumstances, such as sellers who were willing to offer a cut-rate price because of a divorce or job relocation, and then relay that information to the appraiser so he can take it into account when trying to place a value on your own home.

Make sure that you are present when the appraiser visits, and that the house is clean as a whistle. That includes picking up any clutter, vacuuming or steam-cleaning carpets, shining windows and making sure that the yard is mowed and well-manicured. Anything you can do to enhance your home’s curb appeal may add thousands of dollars to the appraiser’s valuation, which, in turn, can make the difference between getting the loan or getting denied.

It also helps to type up a list of your home’s special attributes, and give it to the appraiser when he arrives. Appraisers today are extremely busy, so they might not notice your special woodwork, the energy-saving windows you recently installed or your brand-new dishwasher unless you point the improvements out to him. Make sure the list also includes any other special features of the property, such as an extra-large lot, great views of the mountains or water, or whether the neighborhood is served by outstanding public schools.

If all of your efforts don’t raise the appraisal high enough to justify the loan, contact the bank and ask for a copy of the document: You paid for it, and federal law requires that the lender send you one upon request. Look for errors on the report — the most common include an underestimation of the square footage of the home or size of the lot — and then call the appraiser directly to recheck his work. If he refuses to raise the appraised amount, call your state’s appraisal board, real estate commission and other regulators for further help.

You also should plead your case directly to the bank. Most lenders still have an “appraisal review” process for those who can’t get a loan because the house was undervalued by an appraiser, even though new federal regulations prevent them from directly meddling with an appraiser’s initial conclusion of the property value.