Appraisals these days - what are being used as comps? (for sale, foreclosures)

[monack]

So, we have found yet another place that we might be interested in putting an offer in on. It's a townhouse in Manalapan. It's a 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath, and it's priced at 346K. Now that I've been through the process once of having an offer accepted, my mind has to turn towards the comps. Generally, what is used for comps these days? Are short sales included? If a place on the same street sold for less, are upgrades taken into account? How do appraisers know if a particular comp had upgrades or not?

Blarg. Just as stressful as it is to sell these days, I think it's also stressful to buy. This market is so friggen unpredictable...

[wileynj]

Originally Posted by monack

So, we have found yet another place that we might be interested in putting an offer in on. It's a townhouse in Manalapan. It's a 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath, and it's priced at 346K. Now that I've been through the process once of having an offer accepted, my mind has to turn towards the comps. Generally, what is used for comps these days? Are short sales included? If a place on the same street sold for less, are upgrades taken into account? How do appraisers know if a particular comp had upgrades or not?

Blarg. Just as stressful as it is to sell these days, I think it's also stressful to buy. This market is so friggen unpredictable...

Are you working with a realtor? They do a great job of pointing out the foreclosures and short sales to the appraisers... they try to assist the appraiser (or convince rather ) when doing the comps. They typically go by what has sold and what's for sale..price per SF... they do take into consideration the upgrades... age of the house, etc.

[monack]

yeah - I'm working with a realtor. Generally, do realtors go on appraisals? The last appraisal we had done was on a new construction, and we didn't have a realtor for that.

Our poor realtor is working two open houses today. We expect to her from her later or tomorrow so we can chat further about our options.

I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason - and after having 2 other places fall through, I think that if it's meant to be, it'll happen. I'm certainly not going to force it.

[EANJ]

Originally Posted by monack

yeah - I'm working with a realtor. Generally, do realtors go on appraisals? The last appraisal we had done was on a new construction, and we didn't have a realtor for that.

Our poor realtor is working two open houses today. We expect to her from her later or tomorrow so we can chat further about our options.

I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason - and after having 2 other places fall through, I think that if it's meant to be, it'll happen. I'm certainly not going to force it.

Do realtors "go on appraisals" for what?

I've often wondered what is being used for comps today as well. I recently looked at one property. I know the area very well. I have friends who own property in the area. Anyway, a local appraisor was throwing around some #'s of some appraisals he recently did -- and the numbers seemed incredibly low. They were not based upon recent sales for the most part either. I understand the motive or mindset is often different, but it's been interesting.

I was recently looking in my own neighborhood. Granted it's a high-end neighborhood, and there haven't been any sales recently, but a friend's appraisal for a re-fi just recently came back MUCH LOWER than any previous sale and MUCH LOWER than anyone really thought the bottom was. I understand why, but again, I was curious as to who was using what (and of course the why is important).

[monack]

When I say "go on appraisals", I mean meet the appraiser at the property and walk the appraisal with them.

[EANJ]

Originally Posted by monack

When I say "go on appraisals", I mean meet the appraiser at the property and walk the appraisal with them.

Got it. Don't know.

[wileynj]

Originally Posted by monack

When I say "go on appraisals", I mean meet the appraiser at the property and walk the appraisal with them.

Mine does.

[monack]

So we, once again, had reason to worry about the comps. our agent is pretty sure that even if we were to get the place for, say, $320K, that it might not appraise for that. The listing agent said to get any kind of offer with a 3 in front of it to her clients. So we are going to offer $300K plus 10 for closing costs, and we'll see how that goes...

[EANJ]

Originally Posted by monack

So we, once again, had reason to worry about the comps. our agent is pretty sure that even if we were to get the place for, say, $320K, that it might not appraise for that. The listing agent said to get any kind of offer with a 3 in front of it to her clients. So we are going to offer $300K plus 10 for closing costs, and we'll see how that goes...

Why "plus 10 for the closing costs" -- ???

I think you had included X for the closing costs in another offer you spoke of. What is your thinking here? Thanks.

[monack]

Because it's basically a seller's consession that will allow us to roll $10K in closing costs into the mortgage. Nothing out of pocket for anyone. So the actual price of the house would be $300K, and that is all the seller would see. The actual sales price, however, is $310K, and that is what we would base our mortgage off of. From what our agent has told us, that is really standard these days. And it's less $$ for us out of pocket (with only having to come up with the 3% for a down payment). FHA mortgages allow for up to 6% to go into the mortgage as a sellers consession.