Why Didn't You Use That Sale?

By Darren Ryals, State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser

September 2022

Sometimes we are asked why we didn’t use a certain sale in our appraisals. There can be various reasons why.

It may be that the sale in question really isn’t that comparable to the subject property for various reasons.

It may be too old to use. 

It may not be a closed sale.

It may be in a different market area that tends to have properties of higher or lower value than the area surrounding the subject property.

It may be a sale we know happened, but we do not have the sale price.  Which leads into……

Disclosure Laws – Specifically, sales prices on real estate transactions may or may not be available depending on which state you are in. This is required in many states, but not all. It is not required in Missouri. It can really limit the availability of good usable data to real estate appraisers.

Many times, we can only use what sales data we can find (and verify) rather than what may be a better sale due to not being able to find the sale price of a property.

As appraisers, we have other options for finding sales data. A few examples are: local real estate agents, MLS services, public auctions, and buyers or sellers in private transactions who are willing to share sale information.

We put a considerable amount of time and effort into maintaining a current sales database. While it is not possible to have all sales data, we have more than enough to provide accurate opinions of value for our customers. Contact us today for your appraisal needs.