May I assume you felt the same amount of concern when you were telling buyers they’d have to come up with another $50k to purchase as the market was on it’s way up? ‘Cause that’s the deal – if a seller is “losing” the $50k it’s because the buyer isn’t paying it and vice-versa.
If you don’t like giving people bad news about their values then you’d really hate being an appraiser – we do it on a regular basis. Even when times are good about 30% of all appraisals I perform come in lower than the property owner’s opinion. When times are bad that ratio goes up.
Right now I’m finishing off an appraisal on a property that’s listed at $1.9mil and my opinion of value will probably come in at $1.2mil or so. Trust me when I tell you this property owner is going to be very unhappy and my client probably won’t be making this loan. The fact that this property owner is a professional realty broker will likely add to their frustration.
