House #13: Appraisal

March 2, 2010 · 5 comments

The appraisal for The Poor House came back at our contract price, so assuming no financing surprises, it looks like we’ll be going to closing on this one in the next two weeks…

That said, we almost didn’t get a high-enough appraisal, and it was all my fault. As I mentioned in my article last week about “Controlling Your Deals,” it’s up to me (and you) as sellers to make sure we do everything in our power to ensure that each aspect of a transaction goes smoothly and successfully. Unfortunately, with this appraisal, I didn’t heed my own advice.

We received a call from the appraiser that was coming out to the property last Monday afternoon. But, my wife and I were scheduled to head out of town for a couple days, leaving Monday morning. We knew our project manager could handle the appraisal — meeting with the appraiser, showing him around, providing him relevant info, etc — and we even left him with some documentation to give to the appraiser regarding our costs and list of repairs.

But, in our hurry to get on vacation, I didn’t take the time to put together a list of potential comps for the appraiser to look at, and to use at his discretion. Don’t get me wrong — 99% of appraisers are great at what they do and don’t need us to provide a list of comps, but we’ve found that if we do provide comps, many appraisers will appreciate it and will go out of their way to use them. In addition, sometimes an appraiser may be busy and just miss a good comp, and in this tough market, that can make the difference between an appraisal coming in high enough and it coming in way low.

Turns out that in this case, the appraiser missed a comp that supports the value of our property. Luckily for us, he was very nice, and before turning in the low appraisal, he called the mortgage broker to warn her that it was low. She called the buyer’s agent, who called us, and we quickly got a list of potential comps to the appraiser for him to consider a revision.

Ultimately, it all worked out, but based on my laziness, it almost didn’t. Just another good reminder that — in most cases — we hold the key to our own destiny; if you want to be successful in this business, don’t leave things to chance…






5 responses to “House #13: Appraisal”

  1. Bilgefisher says:

    Very good point on the appraiser. I never thought about providing them comps. Thanks for the heads up.

  2. Chris Ranney says:

    Good luck on the close.

  3. […] Tips To Get A High Appraisal Price […]

  4. Luis says:

    I absolutely agree with this approach. 2 weeks ago I met with the appraiser at the property I was selling and gave him both the comps and pictures of what the house looked like before along with a list of improvements so that he could substantiate the new asking price.

    Not only that but the appraiser was a talker and I spent 3 hours at the house talking with him about all sorts of market stuff while he did his appraisal!

    It was a long day but afterward he gave me his card and told me to give him a call if I had any questions with future investments. The guy has been in RE for 30+ years.

    So I called him the other day for an issue I am dealing with on another FHA appraisal and he called me right back and clarified a bunch of things for me.

    Needless to say this approach works. Oh yeah, the house appraised no problem 😉

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

WANT FREE HOUSE FLIPPING STUFF???
Sign up for our Newsletter and get immediate access to our FREE 150+ Page eBook on New Construction, plus all of our business tools: Single-Family and Multi-Family Business Plans, Rehabbing and Buy-and-Hold Spreadsheets, Contract Templates, and more!
We respect your privacy. No Spam...EVER!