Appraisals

Solid information about new appraisal rules has been hard to find. Here is how a seller must proceed:

1. If you live in a neighborhood with only 3 or more distressed sales (foreclosure, short sales) within the last 6 months you cannot sell your home for fair value. You must wait 6 months and hope none of your neighbors sell their home during that period. If they do, the 6 month period may very well re-set. We were interested in buying a like new home in a local neighborhood but the appraisal showed a market value of $252,000. The cost to construct this home came back on the appraisal at $338,000. Obviously this truth shows that a recovery in appraisals cannot appear until a long period of no sales has passed. Even if buyers are interested and demand causes contract prices to increase you are out of luck.