Do Short Sales or Short Sale Listings Affect Property Appraisals for Mortgages

[lenzoe]

We were considering refinancing a mortgage to take advantage of lower rates, which would require a new appraisal. I know our place is worth less than we purchased it at, but I see on Zillow there is a short sale in our building currently on the market for about 25 percent below what I *thought* the current value of our place would be based on other sales within the last 6 months.

I suppose this is a silly question, but do short sales (or short sale listings that haven't sold) affect appraised value?

 

[Franny]

Short sales can only be considered a comparable once it has sold.

 

[Em]

lenzoe, Zillow.com and many other similar sites do a terrible job of automated valuations. There was a recent article about how bad they were and how many people were complaining. My advice is to avoid using them for price valuations.

Appraisers are using short sales and REOs (bank owned) in their appraisals. They will pull down values if the appraiser uses one or more in their analysis. If you have enough similar and recent sales, maybe the appraiser won't use the short sales as their comps.

 

[lenzoe]

lenzoe, Zillow.com and many other similar sites do a terrible job of automated valuations. There was a recent article about how bad they were and how many people were complaining. My advice is to avoid using them for price valuations.

Appraisers are using short sales and REOs (bank owned) in their appraisals. They will pull down values if the appraiser uses one or more in their analysis. If you have enough similar and recent sales, maybe the appraiser won't use the short sales as their comps.

Thanks for the tips. I thought Zillow's estimates seemed questionable also. I was mainly using it for actual sales data. I hope those are accurate.