The tiresome issue of the misunderstood appraisal
Raise your hand if you’re tired of hearing about low appraisals in the news. Raise your other hand if you have no clue what the definition of a “faulty appraisal” even is. If both of your hands are in the air, that’s awesome, mine were.
Let’s go back to class here for a second. An appraisal is an opinion of value, it determines how much a home is worth on a given day and time, based on age, size, condition, and several other factors. There are three methods on how this can be done – the income approach, for commercial or (duh) income producing properties, like multi-family homes, the cost approach, often used for manufactured homes, and occasionally for new construction – how much it literally costs to build or rebuild a home, and finally the most common, is the comparison approach, using active and sold comps in the neighborhood.
When done for a home purchase, an appraisal is done to protect the bank from lending more money on a home than it’s worth. It isn’t completed to meet the agreed upon price in the contract. It’s not there for the buyer’s peace of mind. It sure as heck isn’t there for the seller or Realtors involved. The lender is the client, they are the ones who are insuring their investment in the transaction by getting an appraisal ordered.
NAR and NAHB members claim lost deals
For nearly a year, between 10 and 18 percent of NAR members surveyed have reported at least one deal which has been delayed or killed due to appraisal issues. Usually the issue is that the appraisal is not meeting the contract price, and either the transaction falls apart completely, or the sales price needs to be renegotiated. Recently a report was released by the NAHB, wherein they are also reporting issues with appraisals. Within the last six months, of their surveyed members, roughly 60 percent said the appraisal was less than the contract price, and about half said the appraisal was less than the cost of building the home.
Both groups are trying to correct the problem of problem appraisals. In a NAHB statement on December 8th, they note they have been holding appraisal summits in Washington for several years with banking regulators in order to urge change of appraisal practices. One of their major concerns at this time is the use of distressed comps in new construction sales. NAR will be hosting a webinar in January with suggestions to make sure appraisers are qualified. Questions Realtors can ask when meeting an appraiser at a home, ensuring they know about upgrades, and providing neighborhood comps.
Not all appraisals are bad, but when they are…
This is all well and good. It never hurt anyone to be more informed about a property. However, to me, a crappy appraisal is one that isn’t up to standards, that is completed sloppily, inaccurately, one that doesn’t take all information into account, one in which data is falsified. Most appraisals are of quality, but when they are bad, they are really bad.
Not meeting contract price, for whatever reason; the home was overpriced to begin with, it was over-improved, the market is rapidly declining- possibly due to job loss or other economic issues, the market is driven by distressed properties, or even the condition of the home itself, this simply is not a reason to get into a huff. And I kind of have to say tuff tiddlywinks. The contract price, and sometimes even upgrades, don’t mean a whole lot, when the rest of the immediate area can’t support the value.
