Should I get my home appraised before I get a buyer so that we can make sure it appraises for what we want?” This is a question I get from Orlando Sellers sometimes and then I ask them… “Would you accept an appraisal that was provided by someone that owns the house that you want to buy?” Their answer is always…”probably not”. With all the horror stories about bad appraisals and bad inspections lately being the cause of deals falling apart, I don’t blame sellers for wanting to get their own appraisals or inspections done to make sure they get it right. I’ve been on the receiving end of that scenario quite a few times lately with some of my own clients getting bad appraisals causing deals to fall apart.
Unfortunately, if you’re a seller, getting your own appraisal or inspection done is usually a waste of money. Today’s educated buyer is skeptical of appraisals that are paid for by the seller. Especially when pre-listing appraisals are ALWAYS above the listing price. You’ll see verbiage like “Appraisal value $350,000 price reduced to $280,000”. When I see things like that it makes me feel like I’m dealing with a used car salesman. The truth is that it’s reduced because the market or buyers don’t agree and claiming that it appraised higher than the true market value will just ruin your credibility.
No appraiser in the world can tell you precisely what a house will sell for when it’s listed. At the end of the day, Appraisals and inspections are opinions just like BPO’s [broker price opinion] when you’re dealing with a short sale.
Here are some things that immediately come to mind when a seller tries to provide their own appraisal.
* Does the seller or listing agent have a personal relationship to the appraiser?
* Is the appraiser credible? What’s his background?
* When EXACTLY was the appraisal done? Is it up to date?
* Who paid for the appraisal?
Orlando Sellers Should Let Realtors Do Their Job
Instead of paying several hundred dollars for an appraisal or an inspection that probably won’t be accepted anyway, why not let the realtor do their job. Orlando real estate agents should be able to give you a very good estimation of how much the house will sell/appraise for. Realtors have all the tools and knowledge that they need to provide you with good solid figures of how much to list the house for. When doing a comparative market analysis [CMA] they take comparable properties that have been recently sold in the same area. Done properly, the CMA will get you very close to what the house should be listed for as well as what it should appraise for.
