What is a home appraisal based on, the listed price of homes in the area or the actual selling price?
Both the responses here answered you – that it is based on selling price. When there aren’t any homes similar enough to the property being appraised, the appraiser will take the closest comparable home and either add or subtract the price based on features found in the various homes. For example, if a home sold for $150,000 with no garage and the one being appraised has a garage, the appraiser will take the $150,000 and add the price of a garage to it to come up with the appraised value. Likewise, if the home with the garage sold for $150,000 and the home being appraised does not have a garage, the price will be less than $150,000. The appraiser must do this for various differences between the homes he/she picked as comparables. The differences must be things that increase/decrease the value of a home – not like window treatments or a pool or other differences that have no impact on price.
