The phrases 'the appraiser came in low' and 'the appraiser killed the deal' are becoming far too well known. In the current age of rampant misinformation, it is time to give a little information refresher on why these are false statements.
Appraisers are specialists in valuation. It's what we do every day. We don't 'come in high' or 'come in low' or 'kill deals.' Appraisers professionally analyze and report what the market indicates, to protect you from possibly overpaying for your biggest investment. Through providing an honest, unbiased valuation, we protect both you and the lender from taking on a bad investment.
If a home is appropriately priced, you will find that often the appraisal will fall within range of the sales or contract price. This is not intentional to 'hit a number' or to 'hit the sales price. ' This simply means that whoever set the list price had an accurate, working knowledge of the market area. If the market proves that the sales price is not supported, there will be a large amount of data, analysis, and explanation within the appraisal report that verifies how this opinion of value was reached.
Please keep this in information in mind so that you won't be fooled when other parties try to blame the appraiser for their shortcomings or errors in setting a fair sales price. Instead of blaming the appraiser for 'coming in low' or for 'killing the deal', the more fitting question would be "who tried to put me underwater in my mortgage and blame the appraiser for it?" Or 'who put us in this position by not doing their due diligence on setting sales price?"
