If your home doesn’t appraise, you have three options for recourse.

What’s a home seller to do if the house doesn’t appraise? Believe it or not, there are options.

Your first option involves appealing the appraisal. To do that, you must submit compelling evidence of the errors made by the appraiser during their assessment. That includes submitting data about different comparable sales in the area and an explanation of why these new properties are more similar to yours than the ones the appraiser used. This can be a difficult and time-consuming process, and it has a low rate of success. 

Your second option is for you and the buyer to agree to adjust the sales price and other terms of the agreement. As a seller, that doesn’t necessarily affect your bottom line; it may be possible to recoup some of that top-line loss by cutting expenses somewhere else, such as with seller assistance.

The third option occurs if the buyer is able and willing to come up with enough cash to make up the difference between the sales price and the appraised value. Remember, the appraisal is what determines how much the lender is willing to loan against the property.

For more answers to your real estate questions, reach out to us, or visit www.PARealEstateResources.com. Hope to hear from you soon!