Appraisals- home buying

[rosiedozie]

Slightly above. It was just a different market than buying now where houses are going for more.

[IrishBelle]

Our first appraisal came in really low. $75k under contract price. Our second with a different appraiser came in at contract price.

Ours wasn't new construction. It was a small acreage and the bank had rules on what they would include and what they wouldn't.   For example, the value of the barn wasn't included which is obviously has a value.

[Ashley&Scott]

We had new construction, it came in at almost exactly the contract price. I think it was slightly higher, but still very close.

[Marmee]

House 1, above when we bought it, below when we sold it
House 2 right at
House 3 above
Condo 1 & 2 right at

[mpc]

we are building and the appraisal came in about 12% above. we just went under contract to sell our current house and now we're nervous all over again about this appraisal!

[marissap]

Under but we bought in a highly competitive market after a severe downturn/drought. We met the sellers half way and split the difference. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

[polarbearfans]

Our came in under but there were really no comp sales. People rarely move and half the street is much older :/

[LoveTrains]

Mine appraised for $30K above the contract price but it was a short sale.

[whitemerlot]

At for both the house we bought, and the one we sold.

[aurora]

Most recently, at the contract price. First house appraised slightly over ($5k).

[dancingirl21]

The first house we went under contract on came back $26k less and we walked because the sellers wouldn't budge on price.

The house we bought came in $22k over appraisal.

[imojoebunny]

Our current new house came in at the sale price. (big eye roll because three other, much smaller, new houses sold across the street for !-10k less, and less than a year later, houses of our size have sold for $100K more due to tight zoning restrictions that prevent them on most lots). We have had homes come in way under or way over on other houses. I have seen friends houses not be able to appraise for the strike price because things were moving so fast, and appraisers here were randomly selected by the bank, who didn't know the area. We ignored one offer on a house we sold because we knew it would not appraise, so the buyer, who needed financing, would not work out. They bid super high, hoping to get down to the wire, and negotiate based on the appraisal.

[Balki.Bartokomous]

All 3 places we've bought have come in right at contract price. It's not unheard of for appraisals to be under, but it's unlikely. If you think about it, the appraiser really doesn't want to be the one to kill the deal since they rely on repeat business from lenders, so they're going to do what they can to get it up to the contract price, as long as the price is within reason & they know what they're doing.

[Deleted]

Ours came in at 20% over the contract price. Woohoo equity! It was not new construction.

[niq]

At price, but it was me construction which I think cuts down on the appraisal variance

[Balki.Bartokomous]

Sept 1, 2015 22:21:16 GMT -5 @bigreddog said:

Sept 1, 2015 21:56:32 GMT -5 Balki.Bartokomous said:

All 3 places we've bought have come in right at contract price. It's not unheard of for appraisals to be under, but it's unlikely. If you think about it, the appraiser really doesn't want to be the one to kill the deal since they rely on repeat business from lenders, so they're going to do what they can to get it up to the contract price, as long as the price is within reason & they know what they're doing.

That's what I heard too initially but then there was a change in the law. I don't know if it's true across all states and counties but the way mine works now is we have 150 appraisers in the city. A lender doesn't get to select who they want to use because there were some shady and unfair practices going on. Instead one of the appraisers will be selected at random. 

Interesting. I hadn't heard of that but it doesn't sound like a horrible thing to help keep housing prices down. What state are you in?

[boiler717]

Appraisal was above, new construction

[steamboat185]

Buying ours came in under. We had the sellers eat the difference, but this was during the housing crash. BIL/SIL are selling now in a very hot market and have a clause in if the contract if the house doesn't appraise the buyers will bring extra cash to the table.

[gtkim]

I honestly don't know, but it didn't cause a problem in our buying process.

However, we also had a clause written into our contract that if the house did not appraise for the sales price the seller would adjust the price to match the appraised amount or we could walk away with no penalties. So we were protected.

[anna7602]

Below, based on no existing comps being an exact match. There were random things thrown in like "we'll estimate that an extra bathroom is worth $10K" when the reality is that most NYers would pay more than an extra $10K for an apartment with more than 1 bathroom, so we didn't get too worked up about it. Units in our building are now selling for much more than we paid 6 years ago, so we definitely made the right choice in moving forward despite the lower appraisal.

[redredwine]

$15K above! Not new construction. That was 9 months ago just before our market took off. Now, a house down the street with the exact same layout (ours is nicer inside, their yard is nicer) is going for $45k over what we paid-whoop whoop!