[davio]

The listing agent should have expertise in the valuation for the ask price. I don't think appraisers are generally involved. Appraisers are primarily working for the mortgage company. My last 4 appraisals have been within a couple thousand of the purchase price.

[StillBored]

"My last 4 appraisals have been within a couple thousand of the purchase price."

Is that a reasonable metric, or is time on market?

I ask because there are a number of studies, that indicate that real-estate agent's houses themselves frequently sit for sale for much longer than the ones they are selling. The idea being that the agents are pushing the market and willing to absorb the longer time-frame in exchange for a much higher selling price.

OTOH, it seems sometimes the strategy is the reverse if the market is really hot. Under-pricing and getting a half dozen people into a bidding war which ends up being double digit percentages above ask seems a frequent strategy to get maximal returns and fast sales.

[davio]

My take is that the appraiser is simply protecting the bank from making a giant mistake. They'll prevent a 100K house for getting a 200k loan. Our previous house sold for 330K when most of the previous sales had been 250-300 for the neighborhood. We even had a comp of the exact same floorplan/elevation at 275. Our agent thought we would probably find buyers at the higher listing price, but didn't know if the house would appraise without any comps in the ballpark.

The low price attracting a bidding war doesn't really work in our market. My brother had something like a dozen showings and half that many offers on listing day, but only got a couple thousand over list. My house had 4 offers, but everyone stuck to their initial numbers when we asked for best and final offers.

Since the market has been hot, there is a stigma of "something must be wrong with that house" if it's been on the market 90+ days. Our strategy has been to price at the top of the comps and reduce quickly if we're not getting good leads.