The Blessing of a Cut Appraisal

When the appraisal on a home purchase comes in lower than the agreed on price, it’s a very stressful situation for a home buyer.   That was definitely the case for Charlotte, whose appraisal came in $4,000 below the $117,000 price on the condo she was buying this fall. 

I personally wasn’t concerned in Charlotte’s case though.  The $113,000 appraised value that we received actually looked really good to me.  There had been several condominium sales in that development this year and the vast majority had sold for $105,000-$107,000.  The units were all very similar so Charlotte’s Realtor and I both expected the seller to see that it could have been a lot worse and to renegotiate with her on the price.

You can never predict what people might do, though, and this seller did the opposite of what we’d all expected.  He dug in his heels and refused to negotiate so, with a heavy heart, Charlotte walked away from the purchase of her new home. 

There’s no doubt that Charlotte was disappointed. She really liked that condo.  Even worse, she had already sold her previous home and was temporarily staying with some family.  This temporary situation was only supposed to last for a week or two, but now that the purchase had fallen apart, it looked like it could go on indefinitely.  After years of having her own space, living as a guest was taking a toll on Charlotte.

Luckily for her, Charlotte had partnered with Bethany Rowe, an amazing Realtor with At Home Realty Group.  Bethany wasn’t about to give up because the going got tough, and she immediately hit the streets to find Charlotte another home.  In a matter of weeks she found and negotiated a purchase on another wonderful condominium for Charlotte in the same development as the previous one but this one cost $14,000 less than the first one.

So the moral of the story?  Sometimes a home buying disappointment is a blessing in disguise.  Charlotte was definitely discouraged when the initial purchase fell apart, but five weeks later she was able to close on the purchase of the RIGHT home for her, at the right price.  Thanks to the hard work of her excellent Realtor (and me, for getting the second purchase closed super-fast), Charlotte is now happily living in her new home that she purchased at a great great price.  Congratulations Charlotte!