Appraisal Comps

[M]

My dealer is in the process of having an appraisal done for my home and property. It's been 1 month and today I was told they were having a hard time finding comps in the area. They said they had to be recently placed homes (within the last 6 months). Any idea what they consider "in my area"...there's LOTS of manufactured homes in what I consider my area, and I have no way of knowing when they were placed. Short of going to these peoples houses and asking them how long they've been here ...how else do I find comps for the appraiser?? Would the court house..planning and zoning be able to give me a list of recent manufactured home placements and on what road? Hmmm what did I pay appraiser for?

[rmurray]

Comps are very hard to find in many areas...

The only allowable comps are those homes who had the land and home sold together as a package...Usually a resale...few new home sales fit the definition of a comp...If the new home buyer already owned the land....or bought the land from another person other than the dealer...these do not count...

Making it tougher...many of the areas where folks like to put manufactured homes have very low resale rates...Most homes stay with in the family for decades and are seldom resold on the open market..

There may well be lots of comps....but just not high enough to justify the value you need..

Most lenders will allow comps a little older...or out of the area if there are none (not just none high enough)...Many appraisers are not to aware of these rules...or..are scared to use them for fear of their license agency rules...

Often..other appraisers might be a little better suited to do the appraisal...the dealer should call other appraisers to see if there are any in the area involved that have better information..

[Cheryl]

I just purchased a modular home on approx 1/2 acre in town. My appraiser had a hard time finding comps also, however he did find 3. Beware, the bank ended up wanting 6 comps on my manufactured home and ended up adjusting the appraisal by almost $20,000.00 (lower) It took the bank 4 months to close the loan and it was an uphill battle all the way. I ended up with a higher interest rate because it seem that no body wants to do MH home loans any longer.