[quote=andymajumder]Now the property I was trying to buy has been appraised much lower than the purchase price.
Seriously…why aren’t sellers having banks do these appraisals up front and setting more reasonable ask prices, thus saving everyone from hours if not days of wasted time??? The whole painful offer-counteroffer process becomes completely moot when the bank rolls in and values the home at less than even the initial offer.

Basically, the square footage of the house was found to 10% less than whats in the tax records and the owners have no idea…..[/quote]

I agree…it would be so much easier if the seller would get an appraisal before putting it on the market. It’s to the seller’s advantage too because it lowers the chance of buyer falling out of escrow because of low appraisal.

I also think it would be much more efficient for seller’s to make inspections available when the house is on the market (as opposed to waiting until escrow period). Buyers would know what they are getting into, and seller would get higher quality buyers that already know what to expect in terms of the state of the house. More information upfront makes for a more efficient transaction process.