Divorce Support Forums: appraisal

You are right to be concerned, becuas ethe number given to you by your marketer is probably a little high, accounting for whatever the discount is that most houses go for in your area... like where I am, these days, houses are coming in with sales at 5% less than their asking price. I recently got a house sold for 1% less than asking, so I practically jumped up & down with glee over it, realizing that we'd priced it right to move (it HAD to move fast, we had issues with carrying costs). In the end, it ended up with a higher price per square feet than elsewhere in the neighborhood, because we cute-d it up a lot I priced it lower than some of the more cluttered ones in the neighborhood that had been trying to get "top dollar" and were holding out for that.

If you've got someone, like a DIVORCING COUPLE, for example, across the street with a similar house, trying to sell it for the price that each of them is convinced it's worth, someone like me can come in at a percentage point lower price, clean it up a bit nicer, and get a quick sale without any carrying costs (this last sale was within a week of putting it on the market... not having to pay a SINGLE mortgage or utility payment for the time it was on the market sure makes the value of the sale worth the 1% we came down on teh price!)

For your purposes, you're trying to BE the guy who is demanding top dollar, in a market that's failing and not bound to rebound for... I'm thinking it's going to be 2 years, though all the real estate people are talking it up that it's turning around now... the real cycle of things hasn't had time to play itself out yet, so I don't think we've seen the bottom... But I don't have incentive to talk it up & try to get someone to sell at a high price (I want to find a bargain to buy & fix up, but these days it's almost a better idea to buy & rent out in a lease purchase type deal... the point being that I'm THINKING the market is low... it prevents me from losing my shirt by paying more than a property can re-sell for.

Your position is the flip of mine. You want to talk UP your property... to make it seem like the best available, the highest valued. Unfortunately, the value placed by your realtor/marketer is probably high, designed to get you to place it on the market in the hopes of getting a good price, after which they might try to talk you down in price.

Rather than put it on the market to sell at a dream price in a down market, consider getting yourself an independent appraisal if you disagree with your stbx's appraiser. If your independent appraisal comes up with a similar finding, you'll want to consider accepting it.

Your market analysis would not be the best indicator in court. Generally, the judge would take whatever evidence the parties decide to present and determine whether it's valid, whether the source is reliable... and if you have issues with it, whether you can sufficiently articulate & cross examine on those issues to prove that the report isn't as good as it says.

If people came in saying they AGREED that the mansion was worth $10, the judge would say "fine, give him $5", and would shrug & go on, knowing there was something that they were hiding but not really caring since they agreed. If they came in saying they looked at Zillow that said it was worth between $400,000 and $500,000, the judge would listen to what each had to say & show (photos) about the likelihood that the hosue would be on the high end or the low end, and would make a decision based upon that... but if one person came in with Zillow and the other came in with a state-certified appraiser's valuation saying it's worth $379,500... the judge will PROBABLY go with the certified appraiser's value. You will nto want to put your market analysis by a realtor who might think he could get your business, up against the numbers given by a certified appraiser.

I don't knwo fi you want to pay her appraiser or if you want to get an independent one, that's your choice. If I were you, knowing that you're probably a little worried, and it's probably going to be appraised a bit lower than the market analysis showed... I'd probably hire my own appraiser.

But that's just me.