In today's market, there are many scary things....haunted houses, extended time on the market, never-ending inventory of distressed homes, increasing trend towards short sales, and even undisclosed foreclosed inventory...but the scariest thing of all? Yep, you guessed, a real estate appraiser...by far, scarier than any haunted house. At least you know you will get out of the haunted house alive.
But a real estate appraiser, based on some of the horror stories around the country, now that is one scary individual. It seems that there is a never-ending stream of episodes where production appraisers (meaning those that work for appraisal management companies who only have 24 to 48 hours to complete an appraisal assignment for a fee for $175 to $275) regularly wreak havoc in the hearts and souls of many well-intended buyers, owners and Realtors due to their Freddie Krueger-like hacking, sawing, and otherwise mutilating the very industry they are licensed to serve.
I'm not so sure that the passing of Halloween will return those scary real estate appraisers back to their tombs, but much like having holy water to fend off Dracula or a silver weapon against a werewolf, at least Realtors can have timely, accurate data to combat that small pack of production real estate appraisers who scare off everyone with their scary appraisals.
Fortunately, Realtors have access to an abundant trove of data with their MLS and can make the effort, if they choose, to prepare the listings and sales of the most similar properties that have recently transacted... and then place that data in the grips of those real estate appraisers to break them free of the trance they're under from the Haunted Banks and Creepy Appraisal Management Companies. In the absence of holy water and silver weapons, make sure to request competent, experienced real estate appraisers who have a designation or professional distinction which displays their 'armor' against Haunted Banks and Creepy Appraisal Management Companies.
Happy Halloween...Hope you don't run into any Scary Real Estate Appraisers this season :-)
Michael Hobbs, PahRoo Appraisal & Consultancy
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