130: Appraisals 101: The Good, The Bad, and The “Wait… What?!”

Appraisals… the part of the transaction that can feel like a total wildcard. 😅

In this episode, we’re breaking it all down in plain English. what appraisals actually are, how they work, what appraisers are looking at, and what happens when that number comes in right where you want it… or way off.

Because here’s the truth,  a low appraisal isn’t the end of the deal. It’s just the start of a new negotiation.

If you’ve ever felt confused, frustrated, or blindsided by an appraisal, this episode will give you the clarity (and confidence) you need to handle it like a pro.

Like what you heard? Make sure to follow and review the podcast, and shoot us a message with your thoughts at 

contractsandchaos@gmail.com

@YourHomeGirl_CLT 

@Real.Life.Brenna

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Okay, today we're talking about appraisals because let me tell you, they're not always fun. They're not always fun. And uh this is the biggest reminder, and I tell this to my clients, I tell this to other agents, that an appraisal is quite literally somebody's opinion of the price of your house on any given day of the week. If we line up eight different appraisers to go out, you should have, you know, a general, like very close, but sometimes, sometimes they like to play God, but doesn't happen that often. Mm-hmm. And I've seen, well, we'll get we'll get into it, but recently I have seen adjustments for the declining market, and I'm like, what is this nonsense?

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Um, I had I guess it's been two or almost three years ago now, where the appraiser's local and he doesn't like the way the area is growing. He's absolutely opposed to it. So he's playing God by coming in low on appraisals.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

See, but you're not supposed to be able to do that. You're supposed to be an unbiased third party.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

And I used social media against him in our rebuttal.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

So here's here's what always happens, right? Appraisals, notoriously, are you get them back after your inspections, right? So we've gone through the inspections, we've battled with the well, hopefully not battled, but we've gone back to the seller and been like, we need you to fix A, B, C. I need this much in concessions. We should be wrapping this up. A nice little bow, if you will. And I do appraisal packets, and we can get into that too, for buyers and sellers because I want this to go as easily as possible. So we're, you know, say two weeks out from closing, everybody's like excited, everybody's getting their stuff packed, we're talking about where to put the couch and this time of year, where to put the Christmas tree. And I get a phone call from the lender, right? And I love my lender, but she never calls me. Okay, she's a busy lady, and if she calls me, I'm like, oh no. Right. Because she says, Hey darling, how are you? Also, the appraisal's low, and I'm like, no, why? Why?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Right? I found how it happens.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Exactly, exactly. So that's always how it works, though. You know, we're just like, oh, we're almost at the finish line, and then the appraiser just like throws a curveball in there, and then you're faced with this. So Alyssa, why do why do appraisals come in low?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

There's a couple reasons, other than appraisers trying to play God. Um there can be market fluctuations. A power trip. Right?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

There could be market fluctuations. That's my answer for everything now. It's just a power trip.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Is that is that a new well, it depends. Um a lot of what I'm seeing right now is market fluctuations. So we went hot and heavy, even this spring, hot and heavy, and it slowed a little bit. And so I don't think I'm seeing values decline, but I'm seeing people price too high, and there's a big difference there. And so it can be the opposite, too, where if it were coming out of a slower market and all of a sudden, like say interest rates dropped to 3% again, you know, that magic unicorn number, and people are willing to pay over, or house like, or there's more people entering the market, so houses are worth more. If the comps from three months ago aren't with the current market, you might appraise low it because nothing's caught up yet. The things that are under contract now haven't closed. Um I have that issue with the listing right now, where we're gonna go active tomorrow and we still haven't picked a price because we were waiting for two other listings to close to see what they sold at. And I called one of them. I was like, do you mind? Um, but I think that's one. I also think if an appraiser's not familiar with the area, um, and I had this battle with an agent a couple months ago, the area we live in, there's this cute little town called Belmont. And I the only way to describe it is literally it's a Hallmark town.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

It's I was just gonna say it's like a Hallmark movie.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Yeah, it's literally like there's yoga in the park on Saturdays, they have a Christmas parade. Um, a very famous musician family owns a restaurant in town. If you're a Jonas Brothers fan, come visit Belmont. Um, they just did a pop-up concert there last week at the restaurant. Um but I had a listing there. I knew it was listed correctly because I know Belmont like the back of my hand. The other agent is from Charlotte, and granted she's not an appraiser, but she was like, I just don't, this doesn't make sense. There's one around the corner listed 10,000 lower, and I said, Yeah, because it's a block further from downtown. We're within walking distance, spitting distance, yeah. Like that makes it it was on the back side of that block. I said, You don't know the area, and it appraised, and I knew it would, and she was like, Well, if it doesn't, your clients will have to, and I was like, but I think that um sorry, hold on. I had to put my phone on, do not disturb. It didn't automatically go because we're recording at a different time. Um I think appraisers have the same problem if they don't know the intricacies or the specialties in that neighborhood, maybe there is a reason that everyone is going there. Is it the schools? Is it a golf course? Is it the amenities in that neighborhood that you know Mason's Bend? People flock to Mason's Bend. If the appraiser doesn't know the ins and outs, then they're gonna come in low. Or it could be the opposite. I mean, if they don't know the ins and outs, they may come in stupid high in your fire. Right, right, because they're like, oh yeah, this house in my neighborhood would sell for this. Um, and that's why I've been to a couple panels with appraisers. They try not to go out of certain areas, they don't go just for that exact reason, they know better.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Um well, it's the same thing for us as real estate agents, right? Like our local knowledge only extends so far. Can we sell a house in, you know, an hour and a half or two hours away from us? Absolutely. But are we doing the best service for those clients? Because we don't know the area, right? So if I ever have a buyer that's like, oh, I want to be in Asheville, that's not my that's not me. Right. I love Asheville. I love to go to Asheville, but I can't tell you where the nearest Publix is or the food lion is or where the dog park is. I can't tell you that because I'm not familiar enough with that area. So for me to be able to advise and guide you in a home buying process, that's not me. And I think that it's the it should be the same with appraisers. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Absolutely. I think another thing, and we kind of touched on it, um, is overpricing or emotional attachment from the sellers.

unknown 7:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Well, and so here's the thing like a low appraisal isn't always it isn't always like an appraiser doing a bad job, right? Sometimes there are items that are missed, it is what it is, but sometimes it is kind of a reality check for the agents and the sellers that are like, oh, we're still pricing at 2021 prices because we feel like we should be able to. Right. Or and that is not happening.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Right. Or you know, like we've all been there, my listing that just closed was the same thing. My clients really wanted 200. All of her offers were in the 190s. So I had to say to them, this is what the market's telling us. The appraisal said, because my client was like, Well, when the appraisal comes in, it's gonna tell you it's worth 200. And I said, I bet it's not. The appraisal came in at 195, which is what we had for our asking price or our contract price. And I had to fight in our appraisal packet to get that. I was nervous. So sometimes you are, even if the buyer's willing to pay however much over it, that doesn't mean it's worth it. Right. Um, and according to an appraisal, or it doesn't mean the bank is willing, because you know, the market says it's worth it, but it doesn't mean the bank says it's worth it. Um data supports it. It may just be a buyer who's the other thing too.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

The the data is also because sometimes these appraisers are just pulling off MLS information, right? Like I've been known to call listing agents and be like, why did this property sell for XYZ? Right. I had one I've told I've talked about it on the podcast before. I had one that we literally accepted an offer like tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars lower than our list price because of a circumstance change with my sellers and like a health diagnosis that was big and scary and like they just wanted to move, right? But it had nothing to do with the house. We had an appraisal at the time that was higher than our list price. And they still accepted an offer literally over$80,000 lower because they wanted to move it. But if you're an if you're an appraiser just pulling that, you're like, wow, why is this like three-year-old house like something is wonky in this neighborhood, right? And it had nothing to do with that. But do they know that without making that phone call? No.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

No. Or there's one in my neighborhood that, and I have a listing, the one we're going live tomorrow, that is probably 40,000 over. And I'm looking at it's the outlier. My client is hooked on it. Like, that's what we're gonna ask. And I'm like, no, because the rest of the appraisals are 30,000 under the price you want, or the rest of the closings. Like, it's not gonna shake out in the middle somewhere. I have to go, like, if you were a mathematician, you would take that outlier out of the equation, right? I'm not, I'm not including that. I I will push us somewhere, but I'm not gonna push us there because your house will sit. And you're planning on moving to another country at the end of the year, so we need to get this moved.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Well, and right now, I think it's more important to not price at the market, it's to price ahead of the market. Yes, quite honestly, because otherwise you're just playing this game of who can underprice who, because they're doing price decreases right and left right now. So if you hit the market at 400 and the neighbor goes down to 385, guess what? Who's coming down to 385 next?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

You are. And just it is what it is. I think you need to price ahead of the market, and you also need to price according to your client's needs.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

If they Yeah, so I have one right now that they might have a job opportunity to transfer to Texas, right? But if that happens right now where they're living or their area, it's a 75 days on market on average.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Right? So we're not pricing at the tip top of where they think that they could price. You're gonna have to price it pretty aggressively if you're trying to be sold, you know? So, and I don't even know that we can get it done. But to do it, you have to play the cards, play the cards correctly. And that the other thing is, and we mentioned this is an appraisal packet. So for buyers and sellers, I put together an appraisal packet. I have like a comb binder, I put it together. It's so nice. I also recently gonna talk about high note for a second, have been putting together high notes for it. Ooh, okay, yes, clever little girl. Why didn't I think about this a year ago, right? Because when a showing time comes through and says appraisal scheduled, most of the time you have that appraiser's phone number and email address, right? I always call or leave a tech or a text message and be like, hey, got the schedule, all this stuff. Introduce myself, let them know that there's an appraisal packet at the house for them when they get there. Also, I've dropped a copy in your email for convenience, right? It's a high note. What that does for me is I know if they opened it or not.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Right? I know if they looked at the comps, I know if they looked at the upgrades list, I know if they did. If not, I'm like, well, be ready to argue the same information that I sent to them.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Exactly. Exactly. I'm gonna ask you to send me that high note so that I can see how you do yours.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Um I put is the same, the same the same information that I put in. And I mean, we I do comps. I do if we had multiple offers, I'm printing off the first sheet of every offer, um, redact the names or whatever, but so you can see, especially if they're like all pretty close, um, putting those in there, the full copy of our offer, so they have all of the contingencies or seller concessions, and I highlight that stuff. Um if there's uh well, there was always a floor plan, the property disclosures, the upgrade list, if I have a copy of the survey, like all of that stuff, a septic permit.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

That's amazing. Mine, I do all of that um as well, but I never thought to put it in a high note.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

And I never thought until like four months ago.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Right? I never thought I do like the idea, especially if you're in a market where maybe this price could be considered an outlier, to put in the other offers to say, hey, they aren't they're not the only crazy people who wanted to pay this for this house. Like and here's the huge difference. Like I've always put in like multiple offers. I've never thought to put oh yeah, that's a great idea. I'm gonna have to add that to my list when I um do my next one. So that brings us to what happens when it does come in low. What how do we work through this? My first thought is don't panic, don't let your clients panic. I had one earlier this summer that came in low, and I was like, I I kind of expected it, but not where it came in, and I was just like, what? So the first thing I did was I dug through it, and actually the lender and I went through it line by line together. And the first thing we picked out was, why is this comparable in here? This was a house built in 1905, a beautiful wooden Victorian, like fully like well-maintained, all the like pretty Victorian different color paints and everything. And all of a sudden, there's a freaking brick ranch from 1970 in these comparables. Not even near the same neighborhood, like in a little subdivision. And I was like, what the f what? Um I had one once where I dug into it and my clients are freaking out. I dug into it and I looked at it, and I did first page I went, well, this makes sense. He appraised the wrong house.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

I remember this.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

So I had to send it back and be like, excuse me, could you tell the appraiser to go to the correct address, please?

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah, like how do you even get into the right house? Because like, do you just show up?

SPEAKER_01 14:55

It was a street, right? It was a street where the builder was, it wasn't like a subdivision. A builder had bought like four lots at the end of a street, was putting four houses on it. Same floor plan next to each other, different floor plan across the street. So they were new construction, somebody was living there. He didn't like the house numbers weren't up yet, but he had the lot numbers and the plat map. And he went to the different floor plan across the street, and I was just like, Oh my god, you dumb shit. That was crazy. My appraisal packet had the picture of the house on it. How'd you fuck this one up?

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Um, and he still he came in low again. That's the guy who plays God.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

I think I think that it's uh such a miss for people to not go through an appraisal. I know it's a lot of pages, but go through it. My most recent one, um They didn't have the back, like there's a 25 or 26 by 26 additional garage in the back that has like a full kitchenette setup, a bathroom, like the whole nine yards, right? It should have some sort of value on there. And she had it in there as like a outbuilding. One picture from the back porch outbuilding. Well, that's not fun, right? And I will tell you, we did not end up getting the amount that we needed out of that appraisal, but the comps, right? The comps that we had, some of them where they had closed were not ideal where they ended up and their concessions, right? So they may have closed at the right price, but they had$20,000 in concessions. And appraisers are taking that into account very strongly right now. And that's where a lot of that market decline adjustment is coming into play. The other thing is, again, playing God, I don't think that it's necessarily their place to be like we we appreciated too fast in 2020 through 2022, so now we have to pump the brakes. Right. That's not an appraiser's, that's not your job to pump the brakes on on an appreciation of value on a property. I just nope, that's that's not it. Um also another one is making sure that those comps, like you said, are are comparable, right? I had a client um send me a copy of the appraisal and they're looking to list next year, but they did an appraisal ahead of time. They're looking at like a cash out refi, whatever. Um, their appraisals, or they're not their appraisals, their comps range. Like there was a comp in there 800 square feet smaller and almost 1100 square feet bigger. And they're in an area that you have to kind of go a little broader, but those comps shouldn't be in there, right? They have a pool, they have this, and there's comps that have a pool and a shed and stuff that should have been used that are actually closer than the properties that were on that comparable list. And I was like, I would ask questions to you guys. Now, this isn't tied to a contract right now, like we're not battling it. But I would ask questions because it only appraised like$15,000 more than they bought it after they've put a new pool, a new she has an art studio in the back. Like they've done all kinds of things, and it's I'm like, I would ask questions.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Yeah, definitely ask questions, and that brings us to step two. That's where we rebut our appraisal. You have the chance, and with the VA, it's there's a different term for it, but you can rebut the appraisal. Tide water. Yes, thank you. Tidewater. And you can come in and give them, hey, here officially, not just an appraisal packet, officially present to them and the bank. Here's the comps. What the heck? Like, right.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Um, but the point Some lenders will have a form that you have to fill out that you're trying that you want to, you know, appeal the appraisal. Most of the time they have to go back through the same appraiser, which sometimes sucks. Um, I had one instance actually that we got a complete ended up getting a completely different appraiser because it was a it was a real bad racism issue. Real bad. Like this appraiser told my seller that women should not be able to own houses like this. And he appraised it. And I was like, there's no way, because it's a it's a subdivision, like every house, you know what I mean? Like, there's so many comps. There's so many comps.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

He's lucky I wasn't on scene that day because oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

My god, it was horrific. She's like, I just I would really like to have them have an and the buyers were like, oh my god, yeah. Also, it's so low. And anyways, the comps were everywhere. There's no reason it shouldn't have appraised. We had another appraiser go out there because it appraised like$30,000 lower than our contract price. It ended up appraising$45,000 higher than his appraisal. So we were like$15,000 over where the offer was.$45,000 difference. That's crazy. For somebody who felt like this lady should not own a house like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Ladies, if you're listening to this, remember that our generation in our late 30s, early 40s is the first generation in the United States who can buy a house without their husband or father having to sign the paperwork. Don't do not do not let go of that right. Um I remember when I, sorry, we're going on a tangent here, but now I'm fired up. Um when I bought As you should be.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

It's a spicy issue. And like he was reported by the buyer's agent, the buyer's, the seller, and myself.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Absolutely. Ugh. He's lucky it wasn't me because he not only would have been reported, he probably would have walked out with a black eye. How dare he? Oh. I remember when I bought my house, my mom sitting on my back porch and crying, and I was like, What's wrong? And she was like, I couldn't have done this without your dad. I thought she meant financially. Because she was a school.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

No, she just meant lawfully.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

She meant lawful. And then I started doing some digging and realizing she couldn't have a credit card by herself or a bank account by herself for the longest time. Like, people like, look at my nostrils just flared. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

It's okay. All right, so we rebut the appraisal. We present the information that we have. And listen, sometimes, and you'll have to use your judgment on this because if your seller was one of those, you know, aggressive, we're gonna get the best price. Maybe you don't rebut the appraisal, right? And you're like, listen, this supports the information that I gave you at our listing appointment, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, right? These are the comps that I provided to you. He's used them. Here are the adjustments that he's made to account for your third car garage, your extra bathroom, those kinds of things. And here we are, still at this price that is not your list price or your or your offer price.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

It is what it is. Option two if the appraiser doesn't go back through everything and say, Oh no, you're right. I went to the wrong property. My mistake. Let me go ahead and appraise the correct property. We renegotiate, right? There's a few different ways to do this. There are Are ways that the buyer can bring extra money to closing and cover the difference if it doesn't work out? The seller can reduce the price straight up. The seller can offer a concession for your buyers again to use towards that difference at closing. There's many ways to do this, whether they come in the whole way, you meet in the middle. However, that works. Because in a situation like this, it's important to remember that both of you are working towards the same end goal. We are wanting to close this house. So you have to change it. It's not always that simple. Sometimes there's a lot more pieces. Like I had one recently, like we had already negotiated a crap ton of concessions and things like that before we got this appraisal back. So now they're in a situation like we've gotten the seller for everything that they're able to give at this point. So now what?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

And that's where the buyer makes a decision like we'll come out of pocket for it, or we'll trade part of our concession for it and work it out from there. Alyssa's typing a hate letter to the appraiser. No.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

I'm trying to figure out. So our next note, because I wrote this last night when I was sleepy, or maybe you wrote this one, um says to ask for a re-ap a reevaluation. What what does it say? A challenge the lender through a reconsideration of value. What is the difference between that and a having rebutting the appraisal? Isn't that the same thing? Or is that a Well, so I well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

You you wrote this one, but you can rebut the appraisal, but also if like you have to take it through because we just went through having to potentially do this, is if you rebut the appraisal through that appraiser, right? Because they want to use that appraiser. If you want to have a different appraiser, you have to go through the lender and all this whole rigor.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Because of and if you do get another appraisal, here's the thing: if you do get another appraisal, it's at the same value or lower, they take the lowest of the two, right? So if you appraise at 275 and you fight it and you're like, I think it's 280, and they come back at the second appraisal comes back at 270, you can't be like, never mind, I'll take the 275. The bank takes the 270. Yeah. So that's something, but to challenge through the lender, they have to, because they have a platform that they order through appraisals, that kind of thing. I think that's what you meant by that, because that's the only way to do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Yeah, and Google says there is a difference. So an appraisal rebuttal is the document letter used to initiate the process, um, and the goal is to present an argument of why the appraisal's flawed. The reconsideration of value is the official process initiated by the consumer, and that's to have them um re-evaluate based on new information.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Got it.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

So that's one's the official process, one's the us saying, Hey, you fucked up process.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah. And say, like, like we said, that if you can't get it worked out with that appraiser and you have to go and get another appraiser, it is a process. That one that we even with the racism issue, like, it wasn't, it was like, it took an extra couple of weeks to get them to resend out another appraiser. It was a process to do that. Um, option four is it just doesn't work. It won't work for the seller, the seller can't come down on the price, the buyer can't come up with the extra cash, and things just cannot work out. You guys can't meet eye to eye, whatever the case may be, and sometimes deals fall apart because of that. And it can be somebody's fault. We can blame it on the appraiser, we can blame it on the seller for not being more negotiable. It just depends. I haven't had I haven't had any knock on wood. I have not had any that have walked away because of an appraisal.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

I'm trying to think if I have. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

So, pro tips and things that we do to try again to try to avoid an issue with appraisals is that appraisal packet makes a huge difference. Um, listing agents, you should be meeting the appraiser out there at the property. You get the appointment scheduled through however they schedule it. You know that they're gonna be out there. And um, you don't have to stay for the whole time. Go out, introduce yourself, that kind of thing. Drop off that appraisal packet, um, let them know if they have any additional questions to let you know. Usually I don't stay.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

No, I don't no, because I don't want to be seen as a conflict of interest. I say, hey, I'm a such and such agent. Just wanted to give this to you. If you have any questions, my contact information's there. I'm willing to discuss. Hope you have a great day. And I have one more thing out the door.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

Yeah, right. More often it's I'm going out because it's a vacant property and I'm like prepping it. You know what I mean? For it to be ready for an appraisal, lights on, that kind of thing. Or so it's it's like a showing, right? They have uh they have a first impression just like a buyer does. Um, but no, and if you don't go out, listen, I understand people are when they schedule. Sometimes I have have had appraisals scheduled within like an hour. Yeah. If it's a go-in show, right? So then that's a phone call. That's like, hey, I have already dropped this packet off because you should be proactive and get that out there because you never know when they're gonna schedule it. Um also there's one in your email. Let me know if you have any questions. Yada yada yada. Um, buyers agents, talk to your client about it because the worst thing that can happen is you get a low appraisal and your buyer be like, I had no idea that this was an option, right? Like, now what? Let them know what their options would be if an appraisal comes in low, because if they're armed and ready for what could come their way, it just makes it a lot smoother process. Like we knew about this. We knew this could be an option. Here's what we're gonna do about it, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Yeah, and um and then they're prepared. Then they know they can prepare behind the scenes too. Like they can figure out okay, do we have enough cash to gap this? Is the house worth gapping this? What's the situation? Are we gonna need to renegotiate? Like, they can prepare more than just mentally, because there may be financials. If they need to like draw from a w retirement or something, okay, what let's figure out what that process looks like because if there's like a 30-day wait period or something, we're gonna have to talk to the seller to be like, hey, we're gonna like this may slow us down, so we need a we need a delayed closing, you know, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

And make sure and make sure that your lender is communicative and you know, like, hey, like our appraisal window, like it was picked up and we're it's due back by the 20th, right? So you then can follow up and be like, hey, so we're not getting an appraisal, like we didn't realize that it was coming or what when to expect it. Like we know when to expect it expect it. So then we have time, right? Because the worst thing that can happen is we're four days from closing, still waiting on an appraisal that nobody's followed up on to see where the guy is, and then all of a sudden we're delayed and it's low and we have no idea what's going on, and it's just messy, you know?

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah. And it doesn't, I mean, a low appraisal isn't the end all be all. Just if you're prepared and I think if you've done the legwork even before the offer, before the listing, if you're realistic, then this really shouldn't be a concern unless there's something weird. You know, there's an outlier or a variable that you weren't aware of, um, you should be fine.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Or if two comps closed since you did the appraisal packet and they closed more than$30,000. Right. Lower than their list price. Yeah. That maybe like double check those comps like the day of the appraisal. Yeah. You know what I mean? But maybe don't do your appraisal packet too early.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Well, that and like also make sure when you're pricing the listing, if it if you're the or writing the offer, keep a copy of the comps you used to find that number. Because if the market has shifted for some reason, say it's an extended closing or something, and there's a bunch of new l new closings, you want to provide, hey, at the time of offer or at the time of listing, here's the data we had, here's why we priced it this way. So that you can, if you have to, you can rebut one and say, yes, these are the currents, but it's only a 30-day difference, and this is why. Like, don't ha try to have to dig for those. I always have them saved on my computer somewhere. Like, here's the original comps we used, and here's why.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yep. And say the the biggest thing is to not blow a top, right? Like it is what it is, unless like they're being ridiculous, like, and then Alyssa's nostrils will flare and go fight them, give them black eye. But keep it to the facts, keep it to the information. If you are rebutting, like you don't have to be nasty about it. Here's what I see is missing in this report. How can we address it? And sometimes they'll come back and be like, actually, it's addressed here. This is how I accounted for that. And sometimes they'll be like, Oh, yeah, no, I went to the wrong house.

unknown 31:34

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

But ultimately, it's not the end of the world. It happens, it's part of real estate, it's part of our world. Um, so just be, you know, try to be better prepared for it, I guess. The biggest thing that I can say is that appraisal packet has made a huge difference for me the last three years. I've used it for three years now. I do one for my buyers. I used to just do it for my listings, I do it for my buyers now too.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

I'm gonna do it for both because I'm not gonna trust the listing agent. Who knows? There's so many people who are lazy and bad agents out there, but yes. And if you guys don't know how to put one of these together, talk to a uh, I was about to say an elder in your firm or someone you trust in the industry. Um, there's great templates out there. I know I'm pretty sure Elevated Agent has some in her content. Coffee and Contracts might have one somewhere. Um look at it.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Girls has one somewhere too. Like there you can get them on Etsy too.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

There's great information out there. So don't be like, I have no idea what they're talking about. Fit find it or ask someone that you trust, a successful agent, to be like, hey, these girls mentioned doing this. What the hell is that? How do I put one together? And you know, go go get one. But on that.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

And with that, guys, yeah, we'll see you next week.