An odd phenomenon is taking place in Tucsons new hot real estate market, as homes are selling for more $$$ and faster some sellers are having to deal with a very real new concern, and that is " Will there home appraise for "contract price or in other words "purchase price". Between 2003 and 2007 the government hands we out of the business of protecting consumers from themselves and guidelines that insured homes were properly assessed (appraised) were are lax as could be. Free enterprise reveled and capitalism at it's finest reined supreme. If you had a home for sale in 2005 on a street where ten identical homes just sold for $400,000 and you decided to ask for $500,000 and someone wanted to pay that price, which happened all too often, the bank " appraiser" would come along and wallah you're home would then be appraised at $500,000 and magically overnight your house was worth $100,000 more than everyone elses, nice. It was the great American ponzi scheme. Today after bailouts and finger pointing new regulations have been put in place to protect buyers and even the banks. As a example of one of the new regulation, It is now a requirement that the Banks (employees) "not communicate with the appraisers" and there are to be no gourmet lunches with appraisers and no ' day spa gift certificates to appraisers. The government also included stricter guidelines for appraisals; essentially, the "home appraisal" method used to determine fair market value had to make sense, meaning appraisers had to legitimately justify there appraisals by a, standard set of guidelines including, by finding homes that were comparable in size and age and in a similar close by neighborhoods; Then after meeting these guidelines and many more, the appraisal are able to make relatively minor plus or minus adjustments for a number of items including finish upgrades . The problem is now, although the appraisal system is vastly improved , sellers and real estate agents are seeing many appraisers working in areas they are not familiar with because they bid the job thru an appraisal management company" and surprise , an appraiser who typically works on the South side appraising $100,000 homes is in the Tucson Foothills appraising a 1. 5 million dollar home. The question is as a Luxury real estate agent, do I want a appraiser not familiar with the luxury real estate market appraising a home for my 1.5 million dollar client looking to acquire a conventional loan? the answer is "No" for a number of reasons. So what many agents in the real estate market are seeing is a small percentage of sellers with uniquely special homes that are of a special character or qualities, considering and even accepting lower offers that are 'cash offers' because in most cases the appraisals are waived and with the waiving of the appraisal so goes the concern that the appraiser could value the property substantially less than what the buyer had offered and agreed to pay... because if the appraisal comes in less than the ' offer' than the buyer can , as we say in the business "walk" or cancel the contract because the buyers bank funding is also tied to the appraisal coming in at purchase price. Now unless the home is nicely under-priced a fear of how the appraisal will come in is now part of almost every transaction.To give you an idea how different the appraisals are now compared to 2006 , I asked one of Tucson most respected appraisers how many of the appraisals in in 2005 or 2006 would come close to meeting new guidelines and she said "zero". For every good there is a grain of salt to give extra nuances. Please feel free to call me with any of your questions on Tucson and Tucson Luxury homes in the Foothills, Oro valley or Dove mountain.. or even my favorite community in the East, ' Wild Horse Ranch'. Michael Chaisson Long Realty 520-225-8414












