Purchasing builder home - can you request appraisal?

[Kuba Waszywski]

Last year I purchased a home from a builder which is now almost finished. home prices, even on the same street have gone down, where inventory homes are discounted by 10%. I'm locked into a purchase price from last year. Since builder is providing incentives to use their lender, is there any way to force them to lower the sale price now? for example, going with builder's lender but still request a 3rd party appraisal is done? I could try to go with another lender and they might apprise the home lower, however I automatically loose out on the builder incentives towards closing.

[Brad S.]

Quote from @Kuba Waszywski:

From what i have heard, lender's appraisal will always come back to match 'contract sale price'. with 20% down their risk is probably low, even if the home sale price should really be 5-10% lower. 

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Not ALWAYS, but much of the time the appraisal will come in at contract price. But, I have come in both below and above contract prices many times over my career (as an Appraiser).  It depends on a lot of factors, as @Deandre P. said the appraiser is a neutral 3rd party, while they should take the contract into account, it is only one part of the transaction, especially if the price was determined last year.

So, yes, you can order your own appraisal, but that would only be for you and could not be used by any lender for loan purposes (unless it is a hard money or private lender). The lender is required to have the appraisal ordered independently, by someone not getting compensated by the loan closing. It's usually ordered by a different department within the lender or through a separate appraisal management company.

Whether or not you can renegotiate the price depends on your contract. You should reread it and possibly have an attorney review it and ask them. It might be worth it for you to pay for legal advice for this. Good luck