“Appraisals Aren’t Always Equal”
Appraisals Aren't Always Equal
San Francisco's housing stock is so varied in style, age and condition, that it can be a challenge to appraisers and agents alike in pricing properties. Developers of new buildings set their own prices with their preferred lenders, but sellers of existing homes need to rely on the recent comparable sales which your San Francisco real estate agent will provide.
Features such as a view, a double lot, recent remodeling, parking, central heating, new windows, outdoor space, and more all play a part in the value of a property. Buyers who will be financing their purchase will want to see the appraisal come in at their offer price, or above, and while there are plenty of cash buyers in our market, sellers should keep this in mind when pricing their San Francisco home for sale.
“Appraisals Aren’t Always Equal”Clients of mine were in the process of purchasing a historic home in a village setting. Their credit was great, they were putting $100,000 down on a $400,000 purchase, so far all was great.The appraisal was completed and the value came in above the sales price, but we had a problem. There were no comparables that were considered historic homes. The home was built between 1880 and 1890, the style was a Victorian. All the comps were from the same town and all were colonials built between 1998 and 2009. All sold above the subject and all in a similar price range.
The lender went back to the appraiser asking for the comps to be in a similar “vintage” to the subject. There weren’t any sales in the same town, other than one short sale and the closest similar comps were 40 miles away.I asked the selling agent to see if they could find any sales that did not come through MLS and as luck would have it, because of some great homework, two comps were supplied to the appraiser that were within 10 miles, which eventually satisfied the lender.The unfortunate thing, the appraiser really didn’t want to do any extra work, as he felt the lender was being unreasonable. Even though I felt the lender was being unreasonable, they were the ones loaning the money for the mortgage. It’s tough when egos get in the way of getting the transaction accomplished for the buyers.image courtesy of jscreationzs/freedigitalphotos.net
Joe Petrowsky, NMLS #6869
Right Trac Financial Group, Inc. NMLS #2709
110 Main St.
Manchester, Ct. 06042
Office: 860 647-7701 x116
Fax: 860 647-8940
Cell: 860 836-9294
Email: joe@righttracfg.com
Joe Petrowsky does not guarantee nor is in any way responsible for the accuracy of the information provided herein, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied.
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