Lending Appraisal EXCLUDES furniture!

[Mark Miles]

I'm looking at a particular market and I've heard from a number of people to be careful because most appraisers in this market will under-appraise furnished houses. E.g., if I'm buying a furnished house for $300k, they'll insist the house is only worth $280k because the $300k price includes $20k of furniture. This is apparently quite common in some areas, especially areas where it's not necessarily typical of houses to sell furnished. Has anyone else run into this? I know in many areas like Pigeon Forge, ALL of the properties sell furnished - so I'm assuming lenders don't insist on removing $20k from every appraisal to account for the value of the furniture?

I mean, I realize that an appraisal should be based on house + land value, and that technically furniture shouldn't be included in a home's value (since furniture is a depreciating asset). BUT, it's a little ridiculous for appraisers to discount furnished home sales by $10-$20k to account for the cost of the furniture, right? That just makes it a huge pain in the neck for people to finance and buy furnished homes in this area.