This Home is Worth What???

Linda,

You may get closer to the homes actual value of the home than an appraiser but the unfortunate part is the bank is going to take their word for the homes value not yours.  It's crazy they were all that far off.

Wow, Linda! Three different appraisals. The seller actually paid for THREE? Is there something unique, such as acreage, wooded, income producing, etc?

My view on the appraisals and CMAs -- they were done for the seller's information. When you decide on a list price and obtain a buyer, the seller could allow them to use his appraisal if it is still current, or the buyer could get their own appraisal.

Best of luck with this one!

That is amazing. It seems that out of the three they should have been closer in price. We just sold a home that was appraised $40,000 above the selling price.

Linda,

Were the dates of each appraisal very far apart??? An appraisal done 4 months ago potentially used comps that would now be 10 months old...and thus, unusable for the new appraisal.

Also, were the appraisals full appraisals...or was one of them a typical bank-type drive-by appraisal??? If so, disregard that one. It's basically useless.

Were the appraisers' square footage measurements similar??? Sometimes one uses additions whether permitted or not...and others will never allow UNpermitted additions. It's just not normal for there to be as much variance as you're running into, unless it's a time issue...which would directly affect the available comps at the time of the appraisal (the biggest determining factor in establishing market value.) I'd be inclined to trust the latest one the most, providing it was done by a licensed appraiser versus a bank employee.

Interesting post!

Dave

This is very interesting. I would think since you are the expert and attuned to the local market, your CMA at this point would carry more weight. Not knowing the history of the three appraisals, they seem too far apart to take the current market into consideration. If I were the sellers, I would take your CMA into consideration as to pricing.

Linda I agree with Michael Setunsky in that you and your CMA/ opinion who knows the market should be held in higher opinion and weight than an appraisal. Appraisals dont take into account market conditions and what may actually sell in todays marketplace for a specific price and are done by banks who are not in the real estate business to sell real estate.

But on the other hand if your sellers talk to three realtors and you may get three different opinions as well. So like you say "Roll the Dice!".

There are times that I think that I need to suggest a price at 10% below the CMA and still hope for the best.

It's always great when you have an odd number of anything because you can always take the middle one. I like to tell my Clients to pretend that they are Olympic judges: Throw out the high and the low and take the middle one.