Not even Paris' pad will appraise

I recently encountered a situation where a condo we staged sold the first day on market for asking price.  Sounds great, right?  Well, that was before the appraiser was done with it.  The appraiser (who did not even go to the property) appraised the property for $5,000 under the sale price.  According to the appraiser, this was the highest selling condo in the complex and therefore the sale price was too high! 

The seller's realtor went after the lender and the appraiser aggresively and the buyers/lenders/seller were able to acheive a compromise.  

I have been pretty flustered at this situation, and tonight a friend of mine emailed me a story to help me feel better.  She found it on a website called TMZ.com.  Here it is:

Drama at Paris' Pad

Posted Aug 29th 2007 5:55PM by TMZ Staff
Filed under: Wacky and Weird, Paris Hilton

There has been something of a snag in the sale of Paris Hilton's Hollywood Hills pad

       TMZ has learned the house did not appraise for the sale price. Although there are reports it went into escrow for $4.2 mil, Paris' realtor, Mauricio Umansky from the firm Hilton & Hyland, tells us the purchase price is just under that amount.

Umansky, Paris' uncle, acknowledged the highest appraisal the buyer got was $3.6 million. Here's where it gets kind of interesting: Umansky says the purchase price includes furniture and chandeliers totaling between $600,000 and $700,000. He said one chandelier is made by Baccarat -- and only 12 were made. That piece alone is worth 40K.

Umansky says the buyers, a married couple from Texas, will pay the agreed-upon purchase price. He says they're paying mostly cash -- the loan is for $1 million. As a result, Umansky says the appraisal doesn't really mean squat. Umansky tells us the couple will get the keys next week.

Nice to know it's not just us regular folks!