I put down 500 in earnest, I comp the area and look at tax records and my inital offer was 113K. However, the seller’s agent duped me into a puchase price of 118K. According to my lender, the appraised value may be 113K according to preliminaries that the appraiser has done.
The Seller’s Real estate agent said that paying for an appraisal is part of the loan and I HAVE TO pay for it (and have a full Apprasial in hand) before she goes back to the seller to inform her that the asking price is too high. What should I do?? >:(
An acceptable appraisal is normally a condition of the loan. Since the buyer is seeking a loan to obtain financing for the purchase, the appraisal is a buyer’s cost.
If the appraisal does not come in high enough, then you have leverage to reopen negotiations for a lower price, or, you can agree to pay the higher price but get a loan based upon the appraisal (you make up the difference out of pocket), or use your financing contingency to withdraw from the contract because you can’t get financing based upon the contract price.
There is a chance that the property will appraise at the higher amount. If the comps you looked at were a little old, or your market is appreciating at a good pace, or the property has extra feature or amenity, your appraisal may come in at your contract price.
I hope that you are represented by your own agent next time you want to make an offer on a listed property.
Just a note…If you know who you will be funded by, you can ask for 1 of the approved appraisers they use as a Lender and use them. The Lender will accept an appraisal usually from an appraiser they use.
KEC