Are houses appraising in South Orange/Maplewood/Montclair?

[RG79022]

Update -- property appraised for our offer price. Was 10% over asking price. So I guess appraisers are at least, sometimes, getting a sense of where the market is going!

[JaRuss01]

If you dont mind me asking:

Which town? And how many rounds of bids took place until you got up to 10% over? Was the starting bid above ask? Did you waive the appraisal clause or mortgage contingency clause?

...in the same boat for shopping in Montclair/Glen Ridge, and have the same concerns as you did a few weeks ago...

[NJBuyersRebate]

An example from my recent experience. I sold a REO house for $620K (asking price $599K sold as is hence low price) it was appraised by one appraiser for $710K before the listing and later by my buyers bank appraiser for $820K. How come such a huge difference? Easy.
Appraisers are people and their judgement is also subjective.It is simple and accurate to appraise a standard house or a town home even easier but custom homes are difficult.. When I have a feeling a home would not appraise I would take an extra step and give a few appropriate comps to an appraiser to look at. Would I influence his/her decision? I guess it is more like guiding them.

[RG79022]

Originally Posted by JaRuss01

If you dont mind me asking:

Which town? And how many rounds of bids took place until you got up to 10% over? Was the starting bid above ask? Did you waive the appraisal clause or mortgage contingency clause?

...in the same boat for shopping in Montclair/Glen Ridge, and have the same concerns as you did a few weeks ago...

Sorry for just seeing this now. First round was over ask -- 5%. Second round we came up even more-- 10%. It's a silly round game we found because there's no real counter in between, just different deadlines. Sometimes the seller puts out a general 'wish list' of what they want based on the based of all offers, but it's always the same it seems --- highest price, waiving appraisal, limited inspection, specific close date. It's a sellers' market so they basically force you to reconsider.

A good agent will tell you what a house would go for and ours was always spot on.

On this property we did end up waiving the appraisal. We had put in 3 other offers and it was clear that was what needed to happen if we wanted a place in this area --- or at least the 4th one we liked. We did our research though and found lots of comps to support the price. Again, a great agent will go a long way here in your comfort level. We felt scared, but confident that it would work out and it did. Other areas we looked at did not have comps to support the price that would have gotten us the house and we walked knowing our offer wasn't high enough to win the war.

[zxhmike]

Just want to contribute my own data:

Montclair
Ask: 500K
Bid: 585K (April)
Appraise: 588K (May)

Closing this month.

Cheers!