An Appraisal Contingency Should Not Worry Most Home Sellers


An Appraisal Contingency Should Not Worry Most Home Sellers
By Scott Rogers • December 16, 2022
For a few years now, in a highly competitive seller's market, buyers were waiving contingencies left and right... No Home Inspection Contingency! No Radon Test Contingency! No Appraisal Contingency! No Home Sale or Home Settlement Contingency! Now, though, with much higher interest rates, and somewhat lower levels of buyer interest, we are sometimes seeing some of these contingencies sneaking their way back into offers. One of my general rules of thumb these days is that if you are making the only offer on a property, it is probably reasonable to include some of these contingencies that you might have waived if you had bought in 2020/2021... but if you are competing against multiple other offers, you may want to consider waiving some of these contingencies. As such... some sellers are now receiving offers with... my topic of the day... appraisal contingencies! Should a seller be concerned about an appraisal contingency? Should they counter back and propose not having an appraisal contingency? Generally speaking, I don't think an appraisal contingency should worry most home sellers. Appraisers are not personal crusaders with a mission of lowering market values by strategically coming up with low appraised value to wreak havoc on real estate transactions and to course correct the real estate market because they think homes are overvalued. ;-) Appraisers work to provide a detailed and objective estimate of the value of a house to the lender who is using that house as collateral for a mortgage. So, as a home seller, if your contract price is in line with recent sales prices of similar homes, you likely don't need to get too worried about an appraisal contingency. Certainly, it's another hoop to jump through, or another hurdle to clear, between contract and closing... but the existence of the contingency in an offer should not cause you undue stress or anxiety. Receive Updates by Email Recent Articles: Is There A Price You WOULD Pay For This House? There Are Plenty Of Types Of Houses That Exist That Just Are Not Available To Purchase Home Sales By Price Range In The City Of Harrisonburg Are You Compromising On Aspects Of Your Next Home That You Can Or Cannot Change Later? How Much Slower Are The Winter Months In Our Local Housing Market? Rockingham County and New Home Sales Drive Surge in Area Housing Market Find The Balance Between Optimistic And Realistic Home Pricing Room Size Is Difficult To Understand Solely From Real Estate Photos How Much Would You Value Not Having To Prepare Your Home For Showings? One Out Of Four Homes Is Taking Longer Than A Month To Sell
Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com
Based on information from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS® or its MLS, for the period Jan 1, 2000 through Nov 24, 2024 (unless otherwise noted).
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