Does a seller need an appraisal to sell their house? The short answer is NO, you don’t need an appraisal and honestly the appraisal doesn’t matter because it’s a snapshot of a minute in time and it’s all historic. It doesn’t speak to what the current market is performing at. So if you’re a seller, you might have ordered an appraisal because maybe the home is an estate and you’ve got multiple parties that are involved and it helps to help everyone agree on the purchase price.
A lot of times appraisals are also court ordered. But outside of those situations, realtors are generally the ones that are helping you along with your opinions and we set your list price together. The appraisal may be a good indication of what your price should be but that is not always true and doesn’t address many unique things that might be happening at the time of listing. As a seller, you don’t need to go out and order an appraisal. And in fact, it’s not a huge indication of what we’re seeing happen in the local market at that time that you’re ready to sell.