Just had an appraisal completed

[sal425]

I took the advice offered and asked my appraiser for an addendum. Here is the response:

Generally speaking a 5-10% deduction is what they are looking for when the say "quick sale". Its not something appraisers are generally comfortable quoting as a dollar figure in appraisals, but lawyers and lenders ask.

If he needs something further, I can get to it when I get back...but it wont be in the form of a hard number. We have liability and exposure to anyone who reads these reports including your creditors. The appraisal as written should be sufficient to perform the task for which it is intended.

Would this help?

[sal425]

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[PVS]

In my view you are under no obligation to use an appraisal that was ordered and paid for by you. It's an opinion, not a fact. The trustee will get realtor opinions of value regardless. The addendum is too generic to be helpful anyway.

[Amy26]

I never had any issues with my home value... maybe because so many of the units in my development were foreclosing and short selling? I think they used an online number for my place. I never had it appraised. All the condos in my place were selling for 120k or so which was about 150k less than I owed...so I guess it didn't really matter?

[bklawn]

In my view you are under no obligation to use an appraisal that was ordered and paid for by you. It's an opinion, not a fact. The trustee will get realtor opinions of value regardless. The addendum is too generic to be helpful anyway.

So are you saying the trustee will trust a realtor vs a appraisal.. I guess that could be possible, because a realtor is looking to sale as high as they can to get more commission.. The realtor knows what he could say a house for..

[justbroke]

In my view you are under no obligation to use an appraisal that was ordered and paid for by you. It's an opinion, not a fact. The trustee will get realtor opinions of value regardless. The addendum is too generic to be helpful anyway.

Please state your basis for this view.

The only time I have read (a case) where a Trustee will get their own valuation is when you don't provide an appraisal. An appraisal performed by a licensed real estate appraiser in your state, on a Uniform Real-estate Appraisal Report (URAR) and submitted with a copy of their license, is about the best evidence you can get. The only thing that trumps that in Court, is an expert witness, who is usually... yep... a licensed real estate appraiser licensed in that State.

If anything, Trustee's are smart. They would order their own appraisal, not CMA or Zillow or AVM appraisal, performed by a... licensed real estate appraiser. I have seen creditors time after time get smacked down with the BPO, AVM or even CMA going up against an properly documented appraisal on a URAR performed by a licensed appraiser.

Even if a real estate agent lists a home... the "formal appraisal" is what still needs to support the price -- even from the Bank! Let's not complicate this by wondering what evidentiary value a formal appraisal has in a Court of equity.

The term is... best evidence. If you want the best evidence, then get an appraisal and cut off 99.999% of any rebuttals of price. If you want to go back and forth and argue with the Trustee over valuation, do whatever you want (outside an appraisal). You may as well just make up a number. (This is why the Trustee asks "where" you got your valuation from. ) If you are going to be in an evidentiary hearing, bring your expert witness, who can be an appraiser or a real-estate broker/agent.

I'll leave you with that.

[pookieny]

I've found Zillow to be pretty useless. For instance, it lists my home at $180k, I'm lucky if it's worth $100k.

I found it to be pretty worthless in my neighborhood too! Thank goodness BK judge didn't look at that. The house two doors down from me was on Zillow for $90 and it sold as a fixer upper for $48,000.

I was really surprized I wasn't asked for an appraisal because my market value came in just slightly under what I needed to qualify for the equity for my house. I just copied off my county's real estate property information for what my house was assesed at and the trustee accepted that.

[Amy26]

As I said... I didn't have to have my house appraised...we just wrote a number on there and that was that.

[LuciluS]

I went to Realtor.com and there is a place where it says 'How much is your home worth'. I typed in our address and it gave me the homes sold in the last 6 months. I totalled the $ of the homes & the sq. footage and divided them to come up with an avg. sq. ft. sold. Took the sq. footage of our home and mulitplied it by that figure. I gave this printout to our Attorney & he was impressed.

He will have it in case the Trustee questions the value of our home. I also have documentation on my Van as the NADA retail value (required by our District) of it is higher than the $3,200 (I think) allowed by Federal guidelines.

[justbroke]

I think, in the end, it's all up to the mood of the Trustee and whether s/he smells "money". Otherwise, they aren't all that interested in property, as they will only make $25 on a no-asset case.

So, unless it looks juicy, the Trustee will usually take any valuation... even if they question where you got the value. In the end, if you are going to be in a battle with the panel Trustee, my personal recommendation is to err on the side of caution and get a full appraisal. On the other end, if there's no equity, and unless you're in a Chapter 13 and require a full appraisal for a lien strip, I don't see it necessary to do anything more than get a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) or even the tax assessed value if that shows a useful value.

[LuciluS]

I think, in the end, it's all up to the mood of the Trustee and whether s/he smells "money". Otherwise, they aren't all that interested in property, as they will only make $25 on a no-asset case.

So, unless it looks juicy, the Trustee will usually take any valuation... even if they question where you got the value. In the end, if you are going to be in a battle with the panel Trustee, my personal recommendation is to err on the side of caution and get a full appraisal. On the other end, if there's no equity, and unless you're in a Chapter 13 and require a full appraisal for a lien strip, I don't see it necessary to do anything more than get a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) or even the tax assessed value if that shows a useful value.

Errr, our home was assessed in Feb. 08 (purchased in 12/07) & was assessed for $7,000 more than we paid for it and was $15,000 less than what homes are selling now.

Our Chapter 7 (hopefully) was FILED TODAY! It's been a whole year since meeting with our BK Attorney. I will feel a lot better when I get the email with our Case #. Dh is so glad he doesn't have to keep his truck driving expense receipts every week now LOL!

[justbroke]

Errr, our home was assessed in Feb. 08 (purchased in 12/07) & was assessed for $7,000 more than we paid for it and was $15,000 less than what homes are selling now.

Hence my qualifier "or even the tax assessed value if that shows a useful value. " I personally don't like to use the tax assessed value. They vary in many places from 95% of market (I've seen in some locales) to as low as 75% of market in other areas. With the current rapid devaluation, many homes have a tax assessed value far exceeding their market value.

[want2save]

My tax bill as of July 1, 2008 showed a fair market value of $406,000. I took 80% of that, $324,800 (for the bubble burst) then rounded up to $330,000 which is the figure I used. The trustee accepted that without question. My mortgage, exemption and costs of sale exceeded that figure and so the home was exempt. At the time the assessor showed the $406 figure, so did Zillow. I was impressed as we are one of a kind rural property on six acres. Glad to see they were so close!

[justbroke]

At the time the assessor showed the $406 figure, so did Zillow.

I'm not. Zillow, Domania, and the like, actually get property tax reports and import those into their valuation model. If it was exactly the same, shame on them. (For giggles, I checked ZIllow for my property value. It was $4K more than the property tax assessed value. Zillow also had that property tax assessed value listed... hmmm..... my assessed value hasn't changed in 5 years.)

If two appraisers came to my house on separate days, and came up with the same value... I'd call them both liars. LOL

[sal425]

After speaking with my attorney, she said we should use the appraisal. Since I am over the median and it will most likely be an asset case no matter what, she said I shouldn't raise any possible flags. We are only talking about $10k and she said we don't want to be pushed into a 13 because we were pressing our luck.