Blog · Valuations
How to read a
market appraisal
Comparable sales, adjustments, the range versus the number — how to tell a careful appraisal from a flattering one, and what questions to ask before you rely on it.
Every agent's appraisal looks confident on paper — the skill is in the comparison. Here's how to read one properly and spot when you're being flattered into a listing.
What an appraisal actually is
A market appraisal is an agent's opinion of likely sale price, built on recent comparable sales. It's not a formal valuation — those need a licensed valuer and cost money for a reason. The appraisal is free precisely because it's an opinion, albeit an informed one.
Good appraisals show their working: three to five comparable sales with specific reasons each compares — same pocket, similar land, equivalent condition. Bad appraisals show a number. The number without the evidence is a wish.
Three comps minimum. The fourth is usually where the flattering lives.
An appraisal that tells you what you want to hear costs you more than a paid valuation. It costs you the sale. — Daniel Reeves, principal
The comparison game
Agents win listings by flattering prices — everyone in the industry knows it. The tell: comparables from a better street, a different market month, or 'pending' sales that never settled. Each inflates the range without lying outright.
Check the comps yourself — every sale is public. If the appraisal's 'comparable' sold in February for a renovated house and yours is original, the range is suspect. A careful appraisal adjusts for those differences explicitly.
Questions to ask your appraiser
Ask which sale they'd delete if they could only keep three — it reveals which comp is doing the flattering. Ask what they'd change to move the number up — a real appraiser has a list ready. Ask how confident they are, and what could move the range. The appraisal we do answers all of these in writing, because we know they're the questions that matter.
Related reading & services
Where to go next.
Quick questions
Appraisal questions.
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