Your appraisal came in lower than your accepted offer price. The first thing your agent should do is review the appraiser’s report for errors. Appraisal challenges are not easy but what if your challenge fails? There are essentially four options.
- Ask for a new appraisal. You can ask the lender to order an appraisal from a different company. This could certainly be met with resistance and the lender could flat out just say no.
- While not the best option for the seller, the price could be reduced to the appraised value and the sale could move forward.
- The buyer could increase the amount of money they put down. If the seller is digging in their heals and won’t budge the buyer could increase their down payment to make up the difference in the appraised value.
- The fourth option is actually a combination of the last two options. This is an option that I have personally seen work on a few occasions. Like anything else in life the buyer and seller compromise with the seller reducing the price and the buyer coming up with an additional amount of funds. In this scenario both parties contribute and the sale goes on as planned!”
Remember appraisal’s are not the ultimate judgment of a home’s value. A home’s true value is what a “qualified” buyer will pay for it.