Seems no matter what the market is, I’m explaining the difference between Appraised Value and Market Value.

Many people think whatever the appraiser says their house is worth, is what it is worth. The real value is whatever number a seller and a ready, willing and able buyer agree upon. Appraisers study past buyer/seller behavior and give an opinion of current value.

When the market was bad, I was always explaining how appraised value was usually MORE than market value. It was more like the house’s potential. In this crazy seller’s market, I am sometimes explaining how appraised value is LESS than the market value. A lot of the reason is because market value happens in real time. It is right now. Appraised value is saying what the value should be based on the past.

Just this week, a house I sold for $429k appraised for $417k. As I read over the appraisal report, it became clear to me why it did not appraise for the full sale price. Two of the three comparable sales were 6 months old. In an appreciating market, you must make a value adjustment for this. The appraiser gave the two houses 2 and 2.4% appreciation. We have seen much more appreciation in values than that since last October.

In response, I was able to obtain two other offers the listing realtor got. One was $421k and the other was $427,500. If you average those two offers plus the winning offer of $429k made by my buyer, that is an average of $425k.

The appraiser refused to adjust his opinion of value. This is how appraised value and market value differ. Market value is the 3 ready, willing and able buyers who desperately wanted to purchase this home all agreeing the value is between $421k and $429k. Appraised value, in the case of this home, is some stubborn dude with a big ego who isn’t actually in the market to buy anything cutting and pasting a lot of numbers on a sheet of paper and charging $425 for his outdated opinion.