# Sad - losing a gorgeous house, didn't appraise for asking price
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 8, 2011, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719 "2011-06-08T06:29:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/21 "2011-06-08T15:56:56Z")
People are crazy when it come to their homes. I had an offer in on a 970 sqft studio on 10 acres earlier this year that the owner was insisting was worth 750K. She was wildly insulted when I showed her comparison houses and property that were being offered for 400K and I offered 450K after it had been on the market for 7 months. It’s still on the market 3 months later.
Good luck wait it out, the owners will come around or you’ll find a better place.
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### Author:  [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/22 "2011-06-08T16:07:33Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> Here’s how to do it (Realtor talking here). Write an offer for what you think it is worth and what you are willing to pay. Include in the offer the contingency that it must appraise for $X and/or must pass inspection. Optionally, you may include the “right to cure” by the Seller, so if anything is found faulty, they _may_ fix it at their expense.
>
> You can ask the Seller to pay for any of these items as a condition of offer acceptance – of course, they can refuse.
>
> If it doesn’t appraise, you can renegotiate.
>
> I had two offers recently that didn’t appraise for the amount of the contract. In one case, the Seller reduced the price and the deal went through. In the other, the Seller said, “No way,” and took it off the market.
>
> One incentive for a Seller to accept a lower price is if they don’t, they will have to find an all-cash Buyer; one who doesn’t need any financing. Those are far fewer than financing Buyers. So it might be in their best interest to accept a lower price rather than none at all.Appeal to whom? The bank hired an expert. You can try another appraiser, but why would the bank consider that? And it might appraise about the same. All appraisers have access to the same public records and only a small part of their job is raw opinion.
>
> And a short sale isn’t necessarily a bad comp. If the only sales in the area are short, then those are the prices buyers are willing to pay.
>
> A bad comp is one that isn’t an arm’s-length transaction, like from a parent to a child.
>
> The only chance you have is to prove the appraiser incompetent by finding a comparable sale in your favor he overlooked. Maybe he didn’t measure right. Maybe he omitted something. Possible, but not likely.
Appraisers are NOT professionals, in most cases.
I have known several, and they were minimum wage slaves until they learned that county records were free. They then walk through a house, compare it to recent home sales in the neighborhood, and pull a price out of their ass.
I have had several well respected appraisal companies attempt to hire me based on my work in gov’t and county records, etc…
There is a wild variation in what you will get from an appraiser, and they are very open to suggestion.
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### Author:  [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/23 "2011-06-08T16:20:32Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> Ha! Sounds like _that_ one is the one you need to buy - the traffic noise is a non-remediable defect (not sure that’s the official term - but it refers to things you can’t change like being on a busy intersection, train tracks, paper mill next door etc.).
The appraisal term is “[external obsolescence](http://www.termwiki.com/EN:external_obsolescence)”.
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### Author:  [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/24 "2011-06-08T17:29:50Z")
OP, I can definitely feel your pain. My parents are trying (emphasis on trying) to buy a home and every time it seems as though “this one is it!” something happens out of their control. I’m involved in the process quite a bit so it’s shocking to me that people…can be so stupid.
Example 1: Home is listed for X+Y dollars. Homes in area have sold for X dollars. Parents make a bid for 8% lower than X dollars, assuming they’ll settle at X dollars. Owner counteroffers X+Y dollars - 1% :smack::smack::smack:. Owner is not rational; she was a secretary who married a dying rich guy and inherited lots of $. How can you deal with an irrational person?
Example 2: Homeowner accept bid and then doesn’t want to move for 2 months. Homeowners are empty nesters with grown children, NOT children in school or even in college. WTF? House has been on the market for a year. They will. not. budge on the moveout date.
Example 3: Builder owes contractors $, won’t release new homeowner from liability of contractors going after new owner.
Your house is out there, that just wasn’t it…
ETA: Hope the lunch viewing of the new house with potential works out!
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/25 "2011-06-08T17:37:01Z")
We had that happen, but we were the sellers. It ended up that the appraiser had just moved to our small town from the big city of Indianapolis and couldn’t believe anything in West Lafayette was worth any money, so he appraised way low. Our lawyer arranged for another appraiser to look it over and we had no problems.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/26 "2011-06-08T18:21:20Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> Ha! Sounds like _that_ one is the one you need to buy - the traffic noise is a non-remediable defect (not sure that’s the official term - but it refers to things you can’t change like being on a busy intersection, train tracks, paper mill next door etc.).
>
> And as you noted: you can always put down tile, paint walls, add crown molding, and do the landscaping. In fact you can do most of that _yourselves_ and save a bundle. Go for it!!
Agreed. If the houses are similar, you can make your _wow_ factor yourself, on your own schedule, with your own budget.
If appraisers are like house inspectors, they definitely aren’t all equally professional. When we were selling our house two years ago, the first people who offered on it brought in their own “inspector,” who we suspect was a relative of the buyers. He did what was basically a fraudulent inspection - lying about the condition of the house to force us to reduce our price. We wised up and got our own inspection done with a qualified inspector, and found that none of the original inspection was true (which is what we thought all along - the fraudulent inspector was saying things like the foundation was cracked and the shingles needed replacing). We’ll do that in the future - it’s worth it to pay the couple of hundred dollars it cost to not have someone trying to scam you with a fake home inspector.
If appraisals have become something that you have to have done to buy a house, you need to know what houses are worth and what they’re selling for in the area that you’re trying to buy in to protect yourself.
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/27 "2011-06-08T18:55:02Z")
I thought banks got their pee pees slapped over financing houses worth less than appraised. Isn’t it illegal now?
Isn’t that what caused the housing boom to bust?
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### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/28 "2011-06-08T21:51:21Z")
> [@Merneith](#):
>
> I think their realtor is delusional. Also, she’s probably the one who set the asking price in the first place and doesn’t want to lose money on her commission.
Possible, but unusual. The normal story is that the agent wants to list the house at something below its market value - that generates a quick sale and a quick commission requiring minimal time & effort.
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### Author:  [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/29 "2011-06-08T22:20:55Z")
Sometimes it takes the real estate agent and sellers a while to come to grips with what their house is actually worth. The market has taken big hits, and is still going down almost everywhere. Unless the appraiser was making invalid comparisons, you just need to wait out the sellers. They’ll either decide they want out of the house and will lower their price, or that they’d rather not sell in this market.
The house I’m sitting in right now, we made an offer on, and the seller’s agent didn’t even bother to respond with a counter offer, because we were too low. Two months later we were closing at our offer price. This represented a price drop of about 20% from the seller’s original asking price. Zillow, our real estate agent, us and the appraiser all agreed on what the house is worth. It was only the seller and her agent who had to come to terms with its current value.
Do like us, keep looking, but be sure and check back with the house you like. After our offer was ignored, the selling agent said the house was getting good traffic, but we viewed it again two weeks later, and it was clear nobody else had been inside since the last time we’d been there. We didn’t call the selling agent’s bluff, so much as let her come around on her own, and bring the seller with her.
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### Author:  [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/30 "2011-06-08T22:44:07Z")
I forgot to mention, we weren’t aggressive or condescending to the seller or her agent (though we did a lot of WTF? in private). We just kept telling her that our offer was as much as we could afford, that it was a beautiful house, and we wished them luck.
In your position, maybe keep telling the sellers that the appraisal + $10k, or whatever is as much as you can afford, because that’s as much as any bank’s going to loan for the house. This lets them save face, in that it’s not them who think the house is worth too much, but that they’ve begrudgingly accepted the offer available to them.
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### Author:  [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/31 "2011-06-09T01:45:17Z")
> [@sachertorte](#):
>
> I think you are in a good position. It sucks emotionally, but rationally you do not want to pay more than the house is worth! Don’t think of it as losing a house (you didn’t lose anything!). Think of it as dodging a bullet.
>
> Keep an eye on it. If the sellers need to sell, they will come around. Heck, stick with the appraised value as your offer and see if they will counter with appraised + 10. You are in the driver’s seat here.
>
> Plus, as nice as this house _seems_ to you now. Another excellent house will come along sooner or later.
This, with a cherry on top!
That said, **Glory** , man, oh man, I totally feel your pain. Mr. Ko and I have made numerous offers, have been undercut by investors, put off by banks on short sales, [probably] lied to about competing offers on bank owned homes and have toured more dumps than you can shake a crummy counter offer at. We are both mightily weary of the whole process, but still, I’d have to say that for each failed transaction, as sucky as each one was, we really did wind up dodging a substantial financial bullet. It’s a crazy market and it’s still declining, so we continue to rent and look and look and look. I dunno, **Glory** , your circumstances may be different than ours, but speaking for myself, I’d rather stay on the merry-go-round a while longer than pay 40K more than any house is worth.
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### Author:  [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/32 "2011-06-09T04:39:40Z")
It’s possible the sellers cannot afford to lower the price.
The people I bought my house from were in debt up to the asking price – actually beyond, as it turned out. They had taken out a second mortgage and made very expensive modifications to the house, which they’d put on their credit cards! After they moved to another state, they stopped making payments on the house for over a year. They knew they had to cover the missed payments, but didn’t realize – until closing day! – that they also had to pay substantial penalties. Rather than lose money, they were willing to walk away from the deal and let the bank foreclose on the house. I wound up paying several thousand dollars above the agreed upon price to get the house.
Later, I heard they’d gone bankrupt.
I’ve lived here for 10 years and right now, due to the economy, the house is appraised at less than I still owe.
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### Author:  [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/33 "2011-06-09T17:42:41Z")
Quick update:
We did check out the other house, but the same day, the sellers accepted our lower offer (appraisal +10K). I’m very excited, we are getting a great house with a lot of fabulous upgrades for a really good price.
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### Author:  [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/34 "2011-06-09T18:04:57Z")
Yay! I love happy endings.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/35 "2011-06-09T18:10:16Z")
Yay indeed!
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/36 "2011-06-09T18:14:26Z")
> [@Glory](#):
>
> How sucky for them their pretty house isn’t worth what they think it is!
But _you offered_ “within 5K of the asking price and they accepted”… and then you changed your mind, is that right? Why would you make an offer without having a clear idea of what _you_ thought it was worth?
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/37 "2011-06-09T18:19:10Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> A funny (?) side story: a friend is trying to sell their house - and it’s been on the market for well over a year. It’s a depressed area where larger houses simply aren’t selling. Yet they had it appraised for a refinance - and the appraisal came in at something like 80K _more_ than they’d listed it at while trying to sell. So it came in at a higher figure than the place could sell for. Odd.
Right. The real estate industry has a long way to go to adjust to the new norms, which are still in motion anyway. The relationship between appraisals and practical value at this point is pretty theoretical.
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### Author:  [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/38 "2011-06-09T18:40:29Z")
So it looks like the appraiser saved you $30k. Congratulations!
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### Author:  [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/39 "2011-06-09T18:58:50Z")
> [@Glory](#):
>
> Quick update:
>
> We did check out the other house, but the same day, the sellers accepted our lower offer (appraisal +10K). I’m very excited, we are getting a great house with a lot of fabulous upgrades for a really good price.
omg yaaaay! congrats!
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### Author:  [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-losing-a-gorgeous-house-didnt-appraise-for-asking-price/584719/40 "2011-06-09T19:14:31Z")
> [@spark240](#):
>
> But _you offered_ “within 5K of the asking price and they accepted”… and then you changed your mind, is that right? Why would you make an offer without having a clear idea of what _you_ thought it was worth?
Okay, I’m not a Realtor, but our contract clearly stated that the house has to appraise for the sale price or we wouldn’t have to through with the deal (this is standard). The house did NOT appraise so we renegotiated the selling price. Both us as buyers and the sellers acted correctly and in good faith.
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