Has anyone had a home appraised that appraised for less than what the current market was?

Question

I had my home appraised for purposes of refinance and the appraisal came back at less than half of the current market value. But the assesor made note that there were no repairs needed and the house was in tact.

Answer 1

we just went through that last september.

the way they base the appraisal is comparing your home to similar ones;same amount of bdrms/bath/square footage, age etc. you could have a $400,000 home next door, and unless yours is identical to it, yours could appraise for half the amount.

also might be worth your time/money to get an appraiser who is local and knows your house. you didn't say whether or not the appraisal was from a local company or not.

that can make a big difference. we live in the country, the first appraiser they sent out was from the city, took one look at our house and said, "i'm not even doing this, it's not worth my time!"
our house was in a state of remodel at the time.

we then found a local appraiser who had appraised this house for the guy who sold it to us. he knew the house, and when he came out, commented on all the work we've done to it.

we paid $70,000 for the house and he appraised it @$105,000.
and we have $200,000-400,000 homes around us. we weren't thrilled but it was more than 70, and we got our re-fi.

hope this helps.

Answer 2

I'd raise a stink with the appraiser! It's not uncommon for two appraisers to value a property slightly differently but when an appraisal comes in at half the expected market value something is seriously wrong.

But first off, I'm curious as to how you arrived at your assessment of the home's value? What is the basis for your opinion of the home's value?

Was this an on-site appraisal with interior inspection or was it a drive-by? Or worse yet, was it run on one of those websites that purport to value real estate? Those sites are terribly innacurate.

Was the appraiser certified and licensed to do business in your area?

Unless the real estate market has collapsed in your area, there is something wrong with that appraisal. I'd appeal it and ask for him or her to justify their valuation in detail.

Either that or you have a seriously inflated opinion of the value of your home.

Answer 3

do you have a copy of the appraisal? you are entitled to get a copy from the loan company. you might review the comparables used, the similarities of them, the amenties compared to yours. because the housing market has seen a slow down in the past 1 1/2 yrs it's possible you wouldn't have seen any gain. I would be interested to know what you opinion is of the current market? Is your current market value based on what a realtor or realtors told you? If so, you might keep in mind what their ultimate goal is, also that the typical CMA does not account statistically for what the market in your area has been doing over a long period of time. a CMA is a averaging. How often have you seen a home sell for what the realtor said? Sometimes what we think we know has changed. hope i've been helpful

Answer 4

I am not surprised the appraisal came back less than what you expected as housing market continues to slump. I am surprised that it is less than half!

Odd....