Sometimes, appraisals that don’t meet the selling price still work out at the end of the day.
A recent real estate appraisal by Kimberly O’Donnell-Thomas of Platinum Appraisal LLC in Newtown Township, Pa. came in $20,000 less than what a Realtor had valued the house at. The lower figure led to words between the two parties. The Realtor, however, thanked O’Donnell-Thomas for her work, as it led to the sale resulting in the buyer getting a home they could both afford and afford to sell.
“It’s important to have someone to protect the buyer and the bank,” O’Donnell-Thomas, a 30-year appraisal veteran, told the Bucks County Courier Times. “Real estate appraisers want to keep you safe.”
Appraisers and home inspectors are essential team members for any homebuyer, she said.
“The mortgage company normally picks the appraiser. That’s the law. But someone paying cash for a house, you absolutely want to hire one yourself, because a Realtor’s value and an appraiser’s value are very different and you don’t want to get into a situation where someone is saying the home is worth more than it is,” O’Donnell-Thomas said. “Appraisers have to go through rigorous training, requiring hundreds of hours in the classroom and thousands of hours in the field before they can earn their license.
“It can be difficult to get into the industry. You have to work side-by-side with an appraiser to get the experience so they can teach you the ropes and there are not a lot of people willing to do that,” O’Donnell-Thomas added.
Both appraiser and inspector suggest asking questions and buyers accompanying the inspector are good ideas during this process.
“No matter what, a homebuyer should get both a real estate appraiser to value the home and a home inspector to inspect it,” O’Donnell-Thomas said.