Low Appraisal

[Tobey Porter]

Good morning BP community

We've run into a situation with a purchase.  The appraisal came in low.  The seller said he will come down to that appraisal price but will no longer cover his agreed upon portion of the closing costs.  As such, isn't this just a new contract that we can accept or deny?  And still get our deposit money back?  Unfortunately this is happening 3 days prior to closing but this seller has been a headache the entire deal and at this point, we want to walk away.

Thanks for your opinions.

[Dan Schwartz]

My opinion is that you are lucky that the seller is coming down to the appraisal price. You, the buyer, said you would buy it for $X. It's not the seller's fault that the bank/appraiser said you were overpaying for it. So you have a good situation in that the seller is reducing the price to help you with your financing. As for the seller eliminating closing cost assistance, you haven't disclosed what the purchase price discount is vs what the closing cost assistance is. So it's impossible to offer an informed opinion about that.

But if you want to walk, walk. This is your chance to do so, and the window to do it is likely very limited. Good luck.