A four unit appraised 71k under contract, and the rent roll handed to the appraiser may have been part of the reason

The rent roll from a listing agent is a marketing document. Learned that on a land contract where the "in place income" was a hunting lease somebody's cousin never paid.

Did the leases even exist? On small buildings there is often nothing signed at all. The units run month to month by handshake, and the seller cannot produce what was never written. Worth knowing, because if that was the situation, chasing harder would not have changed anything and the real fix is a different one.

Worth spelling out why rents mattered less than comps here. A 4 unit is still appraised as residential, so sales comparison leads and income is only a supporting check.

@tashaford30 the size of the building is doing that work.

One to four unit residential is treated as residential for most lending purposes, so the appraisal is generally built as a residential report with the sales comparison approach carrying the value conclusion. The appraiser finds sales of comparable small buildings and adjusts for differences. Rents show up, often on a small residential income schedule, and they can inform the analysis, but the value conclusion usually rests on the comps. At five units and up the property is commercial, the report is a different product, and the income approach typically leads.

So cairn's building was appraised the way a house is appraised, against other buildings, and the condition adjustments between original kitchens and a full renovation are exactly the kind of thing that moves that grid hard. Weak rent documentation didn't help, but it wasn't the lever.

The practical piece for anyone in this position: ask your lender in writing, before the order goes in, which form the appraisal will be on and which approach they expect to carry weight. Requirements vary by lender and loan product and they change, so get the answer from the person underwriting your file. What you can supply the appraiser is factual material they can verify, signed leases, a rent history, permits and invoices for work done that isn't visible or isn't recorded. That last category is where a human appraiser sees things an automated model can't, and it only helps if the paperwork is in front of them before they write.

If the comps drive the number, is there any version of this where the buyer gets to argue it? Or does the figure simply land and the file is finished.

There is a reconsideration of value process at most lenders, @ehernandez74, and you can submit comps the appraiser did not use. It works when you have a genuinely better comp and it fails when you are simply unhappy. A gap of $71,000 is a long way to close with comp selection. The thing to push back on in your own account, @renee_dubois, is the $560,000. Where did that price come from? If it came from the agent's $5,100 rent roll times some multiple the market was using, then you priced the building off income and the appraisal priced it off condition, and the $489,000 was the market telling you three original kitchens are worth about $70,000 of somebody's renovation budget. Your fix list is fine. It would not have moved this number.