So you're thinking about selling your La Mesa, Mount Helix or San Diego home... or... you are currently in a La Mesa home buying transaction and just had your lender order the APPRAISAL.
Well... what to expect? Sometimes it can be a hair-raising experience. Here's what's going to happen and how to get what you want from a seller and buyer prospective.
SELLERS... You want to know how much your home is worth BEFORE you put it on the market... Not necessary. An expert La Mesa Realtor can pull comps for you and give you a good number. Don't waste the $500 now. When you hire an appraiser to come out to create a report for you, they don't have a number that you are already in escrow for. That number creates a subconscious benchmark for him/her. Remember this statement.... THE TRUE VALUE OF A LA MESA HOME IS WHAT A SELLER IS WILLING TO SELL IT FOR AND WHAT A BUYER IS WILLING TO PAY FOR IT. Cut 'n' dry! So, the escrow $ amount gives a good mark on what the VALUE is. Without it, he/she can guess.
Even though the appraisal you just ordered privately, will have NO BEARING on the up-coming escrow when I sell your La Mesa home, it can put negative thoughts into your head or give you UNREALISTIC ideas about your home's value if the appraiser failed to do their job correctly. Which happens by the way... So, what I'm saying here is, get a good market number form an expert La Mesa, Mount Helix and San Diego Realtor like myself, and let the buyer pay for the appraisal and we can run with it.
Get a FREE home valuation report here
BUYERS.... You're in escrow and your lender just ordered the appraisal. Congrats. Now, Before this took place you discussed a good offer number with your expert La Mesa Realtor and made a strong offer based on what the recent comps show for a home value of the subject property. Your Realtor looked at all the homes for sale in La Mesa and took into account competition. Your La Mesa Realtor used the very simple formula to comp it out. Apples to apples. Take the subject property and compare: same bed, bath, close to same lot sqft, used a range of 200 sqft below and 200 sqft above the subject home's sqft, view?, pool?, if there are upgrades make a soft adjustment for them. Find at least 3 comps that are usable within the zip code. That's how you got your offer number. Good.
Now when the appraiser goes out, we have to hope that he uses the same comps and doesn't get lazy. Remember, you CAN"T BUY THIS HOME FOR MORE THAN THE APPRAISER SAYS IT'S WORTH. The bank won't lend anymore than that. So don't worry. If the appraisal comes back below what we offered, we have to go back to the sellers and tell them, "We tried to pay your price, but the appraisal came back ($) below. We need to bring the contract price down to ($)". The seller can either agree and there is a new price, or they can refuse. If they refuse, deal is dead. It would not be smart to refuse since a professional, neutral third party told them how much their La Mesa homes is worth, but things happen. On to the next property.

I hope this helped. There are many different negotiating strategies that can be employed to save deals and each comes up in different cases. That's why choosing the right La Mesa, Mount Helix and San Diego Realtor is so important. There are many homes for sale in La Mesa that are waiting for you to make them your own. Please contact me if you need any help.