Pre-listing Appraisal For The Philadelphia Home Seller?

Pre-listing Appraisal For The Philadelphia Home Seller?

Al Heavens wrote an article in Philly.com asking if s a pre-listing appraisal a good idea for the Philadelphia seller of real estate?

Appraiser Michael Coyle, of the Coyle Group in Erdenheim, responded to a “Home Economics” article on the difficulties surrounding home appraisals. He said he was surprised that none of the experts I interviewed mentioned “the easiest way to sidestep and possibly eliminate appraisal issues.”  His recommendation is to have “a pre-listing appraisal of the home.” This gives the seller and agent “an unbiased opinion of value for the property.” It also allows them to see how a buyer’s appraiser may react to the property once under contract.

In theory this sounds appealing but most Philadelphia sellers are unwilling to obtain a pre-listing appraisal for two reasons – 1) the don’t want to pay for the appraisal – approx $300-$500 and 2) appraised values are subjective and can vary, quite dramatically, depending on the appraiser and his coverage area. Lender’s have lists of approved appraisers who many times come from outside Philadelphia County and aren’t familiar with the nuances of the Philadelphia real estate market.  In those cases appraisals are substantially lower then appraisals by appraisers who focus mainly on Philadelphia.

Most home sellers would instead rely on the real estate market analysis of their home provided by their listing agent.  Realtors and appraisers have access to the same comps via the TREND MLS system and may times realtors have the advantage of having actually toured the comp property AND the subject property and are thus in a better position to compare.

The only time obtaining an appraisal prior to listing a home makes sense is in the following circumstances:

1. The Seller and the real estate agent are in substantial disagreement about the value of the home OR
2. The property is unique and no recent, accurate comps are available

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Blog post compliments of CenterCityTeam’s Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Frank L. DeFazio, Esquire
Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors – Society Hill
530 Walnut Street, Suite 260
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215.521.1623  Direct
610.636.4364  Cellular
888.308.1148  Fax
[email protected]
www.CenterCityTeam.com