Appraiser Issue - House value

[Daniel Carr]

I am an agent.  My friend is selling her house to her tenant. Seller lives out of state. Does not want to make repairs or have to clean the house. Wants this sale done quickly. There is a decent amount of equity and she just wants to make this transaction as easy as possible. So she is selling for aprox 20k under market value. 

3 identical houses, 2 blocks away, sold recently for 231-236k. We are under contract for 210k. Appraisal came back at 211k. Appraiser did not use the comps (listed above) but used 6 other comps, from a neighborhood a half mile away. 

I called the appraiser and asked some questions and then sent him the comps I had. He said that he set his search criteria for 20k above and below the sales price. So, he never saw the comps I had from much closer to the house we are selling. He did not state that my comps were inaccurate but just that if he came to an appraised value of 20k more than the sales price that he would have a lot of questions to answer from "government bureaucrats". 

Isn't that insane? So, if we were under contract for 230k (which is market value) - the house would have been valued differently by the appraiser? 

It's the same house. My seller is just selling at a discount for convenience - which has nothing to do with the actual value of the property.  It is an irrelevant factor. 

As a Realtor - having to explain this to my clients is fine, it's part of the job.  I like educating people on Real Estate.  But as an investor - this is infuriating. 

Any thoughts from my BP friends?