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And they'll look in larger distances from the target home if they can't find enough comps close by. I wonder how many appraisals actually meet the sellers expectations?
AND....remember that neither the seller nor the buyer are the appraiser's clients. The URAR is written as a risk management tool for use by the lender (the appraiser's client) and prepared in accordance with the program perimeters under which the loan will be granted -- conventional, VA, FHA, USDA, RDA and others.
Well that's somewhat reassuring, but when you live in an area where not many people are selling (older, established, low saturation neighborhood) and an area that is somewhat unique in your demographic (deeded pond rights, backing up to conservation land, lovely old growth wooded areas, lots of privacy), etc., sometimes there are not that many sales to devise comps from. In that case would a distressed one that happened to be recent and right in my neighborhood detract?
I forgot that you had your home for sale, were under contract, and contributed heartily to "Realtors are idiots."
The agent you selected should have answered these questions for you.
Anyone selling their home currently, with a recent "bad" sale as one of the only comps available to the appraiser, may very well have their value affected by that "bad sale".
I'm guessing your Buyer's appraisal hasn't been done, or the value reported, yet? Looks like you've been under contract 3 weeks? Unless you're closing in September, the appraisal should have been done/scheduled by now.
a list of all her upgrades and improvements over the years and valued those at 80,000. Items included in that list were "front door locks", interior paint, tile flooring, replace AC 2009, Roof 2009, custom curtains" etc.
When you restore something like the interior paint, a roof or A/C to working condition, you are not really "improving", you are "maintaining". The custom curtains are personal property and don't count either. Unless noted in the MLS comments or photos for the comps, these things are assumed to be in working order, so you don't get a bonus just because your A/C actually works. It sounds to me like your appraiser just saved you $ 37,000. Feel free to send him a gift card.
We have spent way more than $80,000 in improvements on my house, and we don't expect them to affect value. We got a new stove, for example, because the old stove didn't work. Ditto, the dishwasher. Oh, and two new toilets. We reroofed, replaced one deck and built another (maybe the second one counts), replaced the water heater, replaced the hvac. We even had something installed with the hvac system that is supposed to kill mold (maybe that counts).
We replaced a couple of rotten railroad ties that frame some of the landscaping. We had the popcorn ceiling removed in the living area because chunks were falling down (big A-frame). We replaced all of the ceiling fans. All of the rooms have been painted, maybe a couple of times. We added outlets. We tiled the basement, which had ruined carpet. We tiled the kitchen and dining area. We put new vinyl in the bathrooms (and need to replace that plus the carpets now). We had the house painted twice (needs it again) and put a window unit in the sunroom. We spent $5000 on a new drainage system to stop the basement from water intrusion. We replaced the ceiling tiles in the main basement area.
I'm sure this doesn't represent half of what we've done in the past 13 years, and I'm not sure the house is even worth the $142,500 that we paid back in 2004.
It's called the cost of living in an older home and keeping up with maintenance. Very little of what we have done has been true improvements. Most has been maintenance. Fortunately, all the works has been spread over 13 years. Plus, the mortgage is low.
My husband calls it "fixing the house, one screw at a time."
I forgot that you had your home for sale, were under contract, and contributed heartily to "Realtors are idiots."
The agent you selected should have answered these questions for you.
Anyone selling their home currently, with a recent "bad" sale as one of the only comps available to the appraiser, may very well have their value affected by that "bad sale".
I'm guessing your Buyer's appraisal hasn't been done, or the value reported, yet? Looks like you've been under contract 3 weeks? Unless you're closing in September, the appraisal should have been done/scheduled by now.
Thanks for the analysis of my situation , but you have definitely misrepresented my contributions to "Realtors are Idiots". My contention was nothing of the kind, simply a criticism of the current fee structure in real estate and not the realtors themselves. In fact, my realtor is anything but an idiot and has been extremely helpful and knowledgeable.
He also feels that we won't have an issue with our appraisal, but when you see threads with this kind of title it is kind of scary. And yes, we have had a recent sale in my neighborhood that was way too low for the kind of property it appeared to be and nothing recently right in my neighborhood of anything that I would consider a comp for my house. And yes, we are in fact closing in September and the appraisal is scheduled for next week.
My first call will be to an appraiser. I'll pay for it up front.
Then the realtor.
I am not going to be surprised when it comes to valuing our home.
I will observe that appraisers seem to have a harder time valuing homes that aren't under contract. We've seen half a dozen sellers do exactly what you propose -- and every single time, the house either sat on the market for months, or ended up selling for less (in one case, over 20% less). Not sure why.
I would do an appraisal AND get a good agent to give an in-depth market analysis. Appraisers are often working with comps that are up to a year old. A good agent will have a sense of where the market is headed (up or down), the days on market, etc. and will be able to suggest a competitive price. For example, we had a townhome in a highly-sought-after complex that didn't have a lot of sales because it was a great complex and people didn't move out very often. As a result, the most recent comp in the complex was 8 months old. But I showed the appraiser the multiple offers that we had received on the property (six offers, all at least 3% above list price), and pointed to prices in newer developments (higher for same SF), so the property ended up appraising with a tiny bit to spare. If an agent's comps are solid, then if an appraisal comes in wonky, at least your listing agent will have ammunition for a review.
As a seller, I would also spend the money to have a home inspector give my home a once-over. There's a lot of opinions on that, but I'm of the school that I'd rather know about any potential problems up front and have a chance to address them rather than have it become a bone of contention in repair negotiations. There's a saying -- buyers usually overestimate repairs by a factor of 2. If $5,000 worth of repairs will save me $10,000 in negotiated price/closing costs/etc., then it's probably worth it. You can also discuss projected repairs with an agent, who should be able to give you advice on what repairs should be done prior to listing vis a vis pricing the home to reflect repairs needed.
Thanks for the analysis of my situation , but you have definitely misrepresented my contributions to "Realtors are Idiots". My contention was nothing of the kind, simply a criticism of the current fee structure in real estate and not the realtors themselves. In fact, my realtor is anything but an idiot and has been extremely helpful and knowledgeable.
He also feels that we won't have an issue with our appraisal, but when you see threads with this kind of title it is kind of scary. And yes, we have had a recent sale in my neighborhood that was way too low for the kind of property it appeared to be and nothing recently right in my neighborhood of anything that I would consider a comp for my house. And yes, we are in fact closing in September and the appraisal is scheduled for next week.
I represented that you "heartily contributed". How is that a misrepresentation? Should I go pull some of the strong, negative phrases you used?
The question of what will be a comp can be answered by exactly 3 parties - a competent Realtor, a competent Lender, and a licensed appraiser.
I absolutely understand that commiserating with fellow consumers helps people emotionally and psychologically during the buy or sale process. But getting an answer from an unqualified anonymous username is a vastly different matter.
What did your agent tell you when you listed about how this distressed sale might affect your value? And if neither he nor you are worried about the value, then why would you be irrationally scared by anonymous anecdotes?
Well that's somewhat reassuring, but when you live in an area where not many people are selling (older, established, low saturation neighborhood) and an area that is somewhat unique in your demographic (deeded pond rights, backing up to conservation land, lovely old growth wooded areas, lots of privacy), etc., sometimes there are not that many sales to devise comps from. In that case would a distressed one that happened to be recent and right in my neighborhood detract?
There are two options the appraiser has in that case: Try and find a competing neighborhood to draw comparables from or use the sales in the subject neighborhood and adjust.
I work primarily rural areas and 99% of the time have no comparables. Sales, yes. Comparables no. So I used market data to determine the adjustment.
I represented that you "heartily contributed". How is that a misrepresentation? Should I go pull some of the strong, negative phrases you used?
The question of what will be a comp can be answered by exactly 3 parties - a competent Realtor, a competent Lender, and a licensed appraiser.
I absolutely understand that commiserating with fellow consumers helps people emotionally and psychologically during the buy or sale process. But getting an answer from an unqualified anonymous username is a vastly different matter.
What did your agent tell you when you listed about how this distressed sale might affect your value? And if neither he nor you are worried about the value, then why would you be irrationally scared by anonymous anecdotes?
You can pull anything you want if you feel the need.
I don't expect any answers - just opinions and anecdotes, like everyone else who posts on this forum. Yes, I get that I will not get anything that I can take to the bank, thanks.
And as to why I would be, as you put it, 'irrationally scared' by this, I am a first time seller and in my 60s so changes and uncertainty are difficult. Perhaps rather than questioning my reactions and motivations you might just contribute whatever you can and scroll on by the rest.
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, but you have definitely misrepresented my contributions to "Realtors are Idiots". My contention was nothing of the kind, simply a criticism of the current fee structure in real estate and not the realtors themselves. In fact, my realtor is anything but an idiot and has been extremely helpful and knowledgeable. 
