How to interpret the appraisal

Appraisers use multiple methodologies. Regardless of the methodology, your Pearl Certification Report and its high-performing features will typically not show up as a line-item in the report and contribute $x or y% to your home's value. Depending on the methodology:

• your home may have been compared to a more-valuable group of "comparables" homes with high-performing features because your home was Pearl-certified. If your home had not been Pearl-certified, an appraiser might have compared it to less-valuable "comparables" that would have negatively impacted your home's appraised value. 
• your home's high-performing features may have impacted the appraiser's "adjustments" between the subject property (your property). These adjustments would have been made on a feature level basis (e.g., high efficiency HVAC system that is highlighted in Pearl's documentation), but not specifically called out as an adjustment because the home was "Pearl certified."
• your home's high-performing features and the associated Pearl Certification report may have impacted the appraiser's use of an income approach to determining your home's value, such as an appraiser looking at the discounted cash flow of a home's solar system.
• your home's high-performing features and the associated Pearl Certification report may have impacted the appraiser's use of a cost-based approach to determining your home's value.

You do have a right to ask for the full appraisal report.

If you feel that the appraiser did not add any value to your home based on its high-performing features, do not try and do the appraiser's job.

They are hired by the lender, and their responsibility is to their client. If you feel that the appraiser did not take relevant information into consideration, contact your lender.

There are ways to file a formal reconsideration of value when appropriate. To learn more, you can view an interview from Pearl's CEO asking the one of the nation's leading appraisers about the process.