What to do if Your Appraisal is Short!

We have seen this happen more often than we'd like: Buyers are competing for a listing, and the contract price escalated only for the appraisal to come in low half way through the process. This can be a complex and stressful event for both buyers and sellers, and we have tips that can save the deal!

1. Home appreciation rates are vastly different from month to month. Last week, we showed the data from S&P's CoreLogic Case-Schiller Indices for May, June, and June. Consecutively, rates have been record-breaking each month from 14.8% in May, to 16.4 in June, and potentially 17.2% in July. Because of this, data that is even a month old can be out of date.
2. More and more homes are being sold off market. This means that there is additional data that would be considered relevant sales comparison data that likely gets missed because it's not listing in the Multiple Listing Service, where appraisers access information. So it's difficult to get the full picture in neighborhoods where homes are being sold by owner.

So what can be done if an appraisal comes in short? Well, there is an appeal process, during which your agent can find comparable sales data that the appraiser did not have while writing the initial report. It's fairly easy to find sales prices and residential data for homes that transferred off market from your county auditor's website. The key to this process is to find new and helpful data that justifies a higher valuation for the subject property.

If the appeal process fails (or fails to close the full gap between the appraisal value and the purchase price), there are three options: price renegotiation, gap coverage by the buyer in cash at closing, or contract termination.

Sounds like added stress during an already stressful situation, right? For sure. That's why we really recommend finding strong data and comparable sales (including off market sales!) prior to listing. It's critical that the data inform the asking price of a property. Further, if you have all of those comps prior to listing, you can leave them on the counter for the appraiser to review at the time of their inspection. Some appraisers will reference those, and some won't, but it's worth a shot!

If you're a buyer who is considering making an offer on a hot listing, we recommend considering appraisal gap coverage in your offer. Just be sure to only offer what you're willing to pay over appraisal, and be aware that it might not be enough once the appraisal comes back (in other words, you might have to bring additional cash to close the deal).

We hope you found this information helpful! It's crucial to the buying and selling experience that you hire an agent who is savvy and informed. To discuss your real estate goals with us, fill out a contact form at johnyoderteam.com/contact today!

Until next time,
Cassie Johnson
Key Realty - John Yoder Team