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I recently put in an offer at a house at 5% above asking price. When I got the assessment back, it appraised at exactly the offer price. I was surprised by this because expected it to assess below what I had offered.

I have not yet seen the appraisal report (so I don't know the details of their justification for it), but it seems very unlikely that the appraisal would just happen to come back at exactly what I offered if the appraiser was primarily considering the actual value of the house.

How common is it for appraisals to come back at the exact offer price? If they do, does that mean that you got a fair price for the house, or is the appraisal basically just a meaningless formality?

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  • Note that in many places, if the sale price is higher than the tax assessment that automatically becomes the new assessed value -- by definition it's worth that much because someone paid that much.
    – keshlam
    Apr 26 at 20:23

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How common is it for appraisals to come back at the exact offer price?

From my experience - pretty often. The appraisers know what the listing price was and what the contract price is.

If they do, does that mean that you got a fair price for the house, or is the appraisal basically just a meaningless formality?

The appraiser doesn't work for you, they work for the bank. The bank asked "Does this contract price make sense in the market?" and the appraiser answers "Yes" by reporting appraised value at the same amount.

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  • That makes sense, thanks.
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Apr 26 at 17:05
  • Wouldn't it make more sense if the appraiser didn't know the offer price? Or does the bank prefer they know so if they think it's close, they'll just round up to it so the deal goes through?
    – Craig W
    Apr 26 at 23:45
  • @CraigW depends on how you look at it. In the end the contract price is the actual valuation of the market, the appraiser is trying to see if it is reasonable.
    – littleadv
    Apr 27 at 0:04

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