What date do you use as the sale date?

[robert higgins]

The date that most of your peers use, which in this case would be the recorded date. Unless there is a big gap in MLS date and recorded date, plus sense you do not have direct access to the sales doc’s there is no way of verifying the actual close date per MLS.

 

[Kevin A. Spellman]

Whoever is the custodian of record should be the source of data. This is true for all data in an appraisal report. As appraisers we are entitled to our own opinion but not our own facts.

 

[Greg Bell]

No legal transfer until the deed is recorded which is the exact time of transfer or date of sale..

 

[The Warrior Monk]

Date of closing. Recording sometimes lags behind by as much as two weeks.

FWIW, it can be much longer, especially in the case of flips. The investor will buy the property but not record the deed until the new buyer signs the contract.

 

[Mike Boyd]

For the subject, I use the off market date, which is normally the execution of the contract by both parties by opening escrow.

For comparables, I use the recorded date, which is after the close of escrow. Therefore it is a certified closed sale.

I agree and the date it is recorded is the ONLY date that can be confirmed.

 

[Restrain]

In Texas, a sale does not have to be recorded to be a transfer. It's not unusual to have a "pocket" deed. A recording is only a public acknowledgement of the transfer, but the transfer has taken place regardless of the recording.

I personally prefer the date of closing. The contract date is the date it was signed, but that doesn't mean that the final terms are settled. Anything can, and often does, take place between date of contract and date of closing. The date of recording can take place months after the date of transfer, and can give an erroneous indication of when the property actually changed hands.

 

[Metamorphic]

I've been using Close Date, because that's what my supervisor told me to use; besides, its hard enough finding recent comps without adding 30 to 90 days to the age of all the sales. But I'm thinking of using Contract Date as the basis for any time adjustments to sales prices since Contract Date most closely represents the time when the meeting of the minds on the value of the property occurred.

 

[Mztk1]

When doing mortgage appraisal work for residential properties I show the closing date for date of sale but because time adjustments, per Fannie guidelines MUST be made from date of contract, I show the contract date on one of the blank lines on the bottom and calculate market adjustments from there.

"B. Adjustments to comparable sales. Each comparable sale that is
used in the sales comparison approach must be analyzed for
differences and similarities between it and the property that is being
appraised. The appraiser must make appropriate adjustments for
location, terms and conditions of sale, date of sale, and the physical
characteristics of the properties. "Time" adjustments must be
representative of the market and should be supported by the
comparable sales whenever possible. The adjustments must reflect
the time that elapsed between the contract date (or the date of the
"meeting of the minds") for the comparable sale and the effective
date of the appraisal for the subject property."

Recording dates mean nothing in my market. I view the deed through public record sources on each sale I use and on the deed it states the date of transaction.

 

[chicago guy]

Date of closing. That is when certified money and transfer of posession typically take place. In Illinois (specifically Cook County) it generally takes at least 6-8 weeks to be recorded.

 

[Brad Ellis]

Well there sure appears to be no meeting of tghe minds here, at least.

I would use the closing date- i.e. the date upon which the title passed from seller to buyer. IF your state deems it not to be legal until recorded (pretty rare) then that would be the date. If your state deems that it not necessarily be recorded to be legal (it would sure help prove that but I have prevailed on deeds executed that were never actually recorded), then the actual closing date would be appropriate.

In full disclosure states I se both dates (many if not most actual closing docs require both dates)

What I find most interesting is that Fannie is asking that appraisers measure from the point of a "meeting of the minds". No problem.

So why would that then necessitate that appraisers use closed sales? If we are measuring the actions of buyer and seller pairs in the market, would not a contract duly executed betweeen RWA parties be enough?

Yeah- yeah- I know all about the last minute price changes, deals that do not close, etc. etc. I suggest that they are, in aggregate, not statistically significant enough to matter in the universe of lending anyway.

But just throwing up a red herring here.

Brad