Comments For Appraisal Under Contract Price

[Mark K]

Just tell them..."I'm sorry its not working out for you but I don't kill deals, I just write the obituaries."

 

[Sadie]

APPRAISED A 2 BEDROOM 944 SF RANCH WHICH IS UNDER CONTRACT FOR $355,000 AFTER 5 DOM. LISTING PRICE IS $320,000.
MY VALUE USING 6 COMPS AND STRETCHING AS FAR AS I COULD, CAME IN AT $345,000. NO WAY I COULD SEE $355,000. MLS STATS INDICATED A YTD INCREASE OF 5% WHICH I APPLIED IN ADDITION TO MARKET DERIVED ADJUSTMENTS.
I'M LOOKING FOR COMMENTS TO SATISFY LENDER AND BUYER THAT MY VALUE IS GOOD AND THE SALE PRICE IS TOO HIGH AND NOT JUSTIFIED.
THANKS,
JEFF

Its not a sales price until it sells. its the offered price or price under contract or something like that. Since you wern't party to the negotiations, you can't comment on the motivation of either party.

 

[RCA]

APPRAISED A 2 BEDROOM 944 SF RANCH WHICH IS UNDER CONTRACT FOR $355,000 AFTER 5 DOM. LISTING PRICE IS $320,000.
MY VALUE USING 6 COMPS AND STRETCHING AS FAR AS I COULD, CAME IN AT $345,000. NO WAY I COULD SEE $355,000. MLS STATS INDICATED A YTD INCREASE OF 5% WHICH I APPLIED IN ADDITION TO MARKET DERIVED ADJUSTMENTS.
I'M LOOKING FOR COMMENTS TO SATISFY LENDER AND BUYER THAT MY VALUE IS GOOD AND THE SALE PRICE IS TOO HIGH AND NOT JUSTIFIED.
THANKS,
JEFF

We can't see the property and so we really have no way to judge a $10K difference. Often, it is a question of subjective criteria such as aesthetics, functional utility, aspects of view, and location. Property can have a higher "user value" than "market value." That is, to person X, the property has a value of $355,000, but to just about anyone else, it has a value less than $345,000. You are supposed to estimate the market value, not user value. 99% of appraisers don't really know how to deal with subjective value, except to fly by the seat of their pants and more or less guess based on their experience. And, you'll never convince me otherwise, the personal view of appraisers on the value of subjective features is basically biased by their personal tastes, regardless of how much experience they have.

So, it is what it is. All you can do is use your best judgment - and the users of your report have to live with that - or pay a better appraiser, if they can find one, to do a more advanced appraisal.

 

[Tom D]

I love the over listing price sale. Funny thing, the couple i did i came over the above sale price. It was like the wild west of sales prices increasing neighborhood. Bidding wars with few listings.

What can you say. Gee i made a typo. They can review it or order another one. And you generously stretched it to not be yelled at. And without looking at it i can't say that you are good or bad.

This is why most appraisals when close seem to get there. Ain't worth the aggrevation.

 

[Jerry Bone Jr]

APPRAISED A 2 BEDROOM 944 SF RANCH WHICH IS UNDER CONTRACT FOR $355,000 AFTER 5 DOM. LISTING PRICE IS $320,000.
MY VALUE USING 6 COMPS AND STRETCHING AS FAR AS I COULD, CAME IN AT $345,000. NO WAY I COULD SEE $355,000. MLS STATS INDICATED A YTD INCREASE OF 5% WHICH I APPLIED IN ADDITION TO MARKET DERIVED ADJUSTMENTS.
I'M LOOKING FOR COMMENTS TO SATISFY LENDER AND BUYER THAT MY VALUE IS GOOD AND THE SALE PRICE IS TOO HIGH AND NOT JUSTIFIED.
THANKS,
JEFF

The subject's pending price ($355,000) is not within the comparable sales' indicated value range ($300,000 to $350,000) and is considered high. The pending price is high due to the $35,000 in seller concessions. The definition of Market Value is the "most probable price", not the highest/lowest price.

 

[J Grant]

The subject's pending price ($355,000) is not within the comparable sales' indicated value range ($300,000 to $350,000) and is considered high. The pending price is high due to the $35,000 in seller concessions. The definition of Market Value is the "most probable price", not the highest/lowest price.

I like this part, The subject's pending price ($355,000) is not within the comparable sales' indicated value range ($300,000 to $350,000).

I personally do not like to say the price is considered High. Because that makes it sound subjective, as if we think it's too high, and that is why it is not the MV ( despite citing the definition).

If there are concessions or other known factors, I state that the price appears to be affected upward by the concession. If no clear reason like concessions is present, and no known unusual circumstances are known, I make a bland statement that an SC price can be the result of individual motivation or negotiation.

 

[George Hatch]

The subject was listed on 05/15/2025 for $320,000 and went into contract for $355,000 on 07/10/2025. Based on my research and analysis of 30 closed sales going back 12 months I selected the 5 sales that I consider to be the most similar and most indicative of the subject's market value. These sales adjusted to $325,000, a little higher than the subject's list price but well below the contract price. There are only 2 sales that adjust higher than $325,000, which appear in this report as Sales #4 and #5. I did not identify any sales that adjust to $355,000 so I consider the contract price to be completely outweighed by those sales which can be fairly considered "most similar" to the subject. Although I did not grid all 30 sales as being "most similar" my analysis did include their consideration by way of providing context for understanding the smaller subset of "most similar" Sales #1 - #5.

Here are the parameters I used to select the sales that are most comparable to the subject. Any sales which don't meet ALL of these parameters cannot be considered as directly comparable to the subject as the sales presented in this Sales Comparison:

1985-1995 Year Built​

1/2 mile proximity to the subject (same subdivision)​

1300sf - 1700sf​

C3​

Q3​

This explanation provides the lender with the means to dismiss the ROV sales due to not meeting the search parameters. Whether they do or don't exercise their own discretion, the 2nd paragraph provides the reasoning that enables the appraiser to respond with a cut-n-paste and a comment "does not meet all of these search parameters and therefore cannot be considered more similar than S#1- S#5."

It's not a question of what the appraiser will or won't do, but of what they can or cannot do. "I cannot lie for you"

The other thing the first paragraph does is deny them the opportunity to say the appraiser didn't consider the contract price, and to deny them the opportunity to accuse the appraiser of basing the appraisal solely on the sales in the report instead of the wider analysis of the larger dataset. Meaning, swapping a couple sales out won't alter the outcome.

 

[sputnam]

If you've done what USPAP requires.... summarize the support and rationale for your opinions and conclusions.... you've done all you need to do.

If you want to do more, you can state that you are aware the opinion of value is lower (or higher) than the contract sales price and that it is based on your analysis of the most relevant sales data available.

 

[Tom D]

Dear lender,
The listing agent also came in lower.

 

[DTB]

What do the pending and active listings indicate?