As you may know, our team has a collective 30+ years of experience in the real estate industry. You could say we’ve seen it all … until now, that is. Thankfully, we had an amazing August; during the month, we encountered three, count them, three requests for doubling up on appraisals.
To spell this out clearly, we had three deals in which the bank ordered two appraisals to be conducted for the same property. One is a fluke. Two is a trend. Three just seems ridiculous.
We’re writing this with two primary messages:
- Don’t panic if this happens to you. Take a deep breath and realize this is a sign of changing times. If you priced your apartment correctly, appraisals should support the contract signed price. If you happened to get lucky and got what you believe to be an above-market price then you have several options at your disposal.
- Understand what this means about the credit market we’re in: Banks are covering their backs more than ever to assure that the secondary market will buy their loans and (worst case scenario) that if they do need to keep them on their books, they have real collateral behind them.
Both messages underline the point that, for as much of a pain that banks are for sellers, the pain is felt that much more by buyers. (Even if a contract is mortgage non-contingent, the appraisals still take place.) This means longer times to close and more stringent mortgage requirements. Be patient, be supportive, and be prepared for timelines to stretch out.
