Given our recent market shift (and the volume of new subscribers), I feel the need to revisit the topic of real estate appraisals and their affect on your potential transaction. An appraisal is a tool utilized by the lender to ensure that they (the lender) is lending the appropriate amount to a buyer when purchasing a property. It is a protection put in place in case the buyer stops making mortgage payments and the property is foreclosed upon, at which point the lender would have to re-sell the home at a foreclosure sale. The appraisal dictates the market value of the home so that the lender is able to recoup the money they lent out given a foreclosure situation. Over the past few years the majority of sales were closing above asking price which always creates potential for a variance between agreed upon purchase price, and appraised price, in most cases the seller would be forced to sell the property at the appraised value. The only way around that is if the buyer opts to remove their appraisal contingency which would then require the buyer to make up the difference between the appraised price and agreed upon purchase price with cash. Given our recent local market plateauing, we are seeing more and more appraisals coming in under value because of the lag between market value and offer price. If you have a large downpayment amount, it might be beneficial to consider waiving your appraisal contingency when writing an offer to make your offer more appealing to the seller. If you have any questions regarding appraisals and their details please do not hesitate to reach out to me for more info! | 
