How Appraisers Really Decide What Your Lansing Home Is Worth

You found the house. Your offer got accepted. You made it through the inspection. And then the appraisal comes back lower than the price everyone agreed to. Suddenly, the deal you thought was done is hanging in the balance.

It’s one of the most misunderstood steps in the home-buying process, and that’s exactly why I brought in appraisal expert Doug Petroff of Petroff Realty and Appraisals. Doug is a longtime appraiser whose family has led the Greater Lansing Association of Realtors across generations, and one of the handful of people I trust to give a rock-solid number.

What an appraisal actually is. An appraiser and a Realtor do similar work from slightly different angles. When I price your home, I’m running a comparative market analysis, pulling the closest comparable sales I can find, apples to apples, ranches to ranches, and showing you what the numbers say fair market value is. I’m not making up the market or giving my opinion.

Doug goes deeper: square footage, full baths vs. half baths, basements, walkouts, decks, condition, location, setting. All of it gets adjusted for. That’s the part most people never see, and it’s why a real appraisal is so different from a number off an algorithm.

Why the lender orders it. Once you have an accepted offer and have cleared the inspection, the appraisal is ordered through the lender you’re financing with. The reason the bank wants it is simple: they’re protecting their loan. If you offered a million on a home that appraises at 700,000, the bank isn’t going to hand over money on a house that isn’t worth it. As Doug put it, the bank holds the cards. They need to know the loan is secure before they lend. That’s the whole point of the appraisal.

What happens when it comes in low? This is the question I get most, so I asked Doug to walk through it. If the appraisal lands below your accepted offer, there’s a formal process called an ROV, a reconsideration of value, that you can file through your mortgage lender. But it has to be backed by evidence. You can’t ask for a higher number just because you want one. Maybe there’s a comparable sale that was missed, something off-market the appraiser didn’t have. That’s a real reason to reconsider. Most of the time, though, it gets worked out between the agents. The number is the number, and it protects everyone in the deal, including you.

“My job isn’t to put a swing in your yard. It’s to put a sign in your yard to sell your home.”

Be careful with online estimates. We spent real time on this one because it trips up so many sellers. Those online tools are algorithms, and algorithms don’t know your home. It doesn’t know you redid the kitchen, or that the “update” was new outlet covers and not new electrical. They’re fine as a rough starting point. Just don’t set your heart on a number that changes daily because another house down the street came on the market.

How you can actually help your appraisal. If you’ve made real improvements, document them and have that list ready for the appraiser. A new furnace, roof, windows, fresh insulation, and updated kitchen and baths help Doug place your home toward the higher end of the range. One caveat worth repeating: a roof and a furnace aren’t bonus value, because every house is expected to have them. But genuine, documented updates can be.

Why the right agent matters more than the asking price. This is where it all connects. The biggest factor in a successful sale is the Realtor you choose, because pricing it right depends on someone who’ll show you the real numbers instead of telling you what you want to hear. Doug said it plainly: when I call and say my client thinks it’s worth a million, sometimes he’s the one telling me it’s 700. I’d rather be your second or third Realtor than the one who takes an overpriced listing, lets it sit, and becomes the agent who couldn’t sell it.

The cost of getting this wrong is real. Doug shared a story that stuck with me. A past client was about to sell to his neighbor for a price they’d agreed on by hand. Doug appraised it, and it came back $250,000 more than they’d negotiated. They were lucky nothing was on paper yet, and that money was their savings heading into assisted living.

In a market like ours, where inventory is tight and proper pricing is sparking real bidding wars, the difference between guessing and knowing is enormous.

If you’re thinking about buying or selling in the Greater Lansing area and you want a number you can actually trust, reach out. Call or text me at 517-204-3311, email me at Jeff@jeffburkeassociates.com, or visit michiganhomelife.com.