What errors should I look for in my appraisal report?

Start with the facts about your house

Most of the fixable errors I see live on the first few pages. They are not judgment calls. They are typos with a price tag.

NerdWallet's advice is the right place to start: confirm the bedroom count, the bathroom count and the square footage, and make sure major upgrades weren't missed. I would add a few more lines to that list:

• Bedrooms and bathrooms. Is a half bath listed as a full, or missing? Is a bedroom counted as a den?
• Square footage. Is it measured to the right standard? Was a below-grade room counted as living area, or left out entirely?
• Garage and parking. Two-car or one-car? Attached or detached?
• Lot size and features. Does it match the parcel? Is the view, pool or ADU described correctly?
• Major systems. Heating, cooling, roof, solar. Are they described as they are?
• Upgrades and condition. Did the new kitchen make it into the report, or is the house described as if it is still 1994 in there?

One wrong fact can ripple through the whole grid, because every comparable gets adjusted against it.

Then check the comparable sales

Comparable sales, or comps, are recent nearby sales of similar homes. They do most of the work in a home appraisal, so they deserve a hard look. NerdWallet asks the right question: were they truly comparable?

• Similar. Same general size, age, style, quality and condition. A remodeled house compared to three fixers is a problem, and so is the reverse.
• Close. Same neighborhood or a competing one, not across a freeway or a school boundary that buyers care about.
• Recent. Do the sales reflect today's market? If prices have moved, was there a time adjustment, and was it measured from recent sales?
• Better sales left out. Was there a closer, more similar sale the report skipped? If so, does the report explain why?

Be fair here. Your neighbor's sale at a record price may have had a pool, a view and a seller credit. "Higher" is not the same as "more similar."

Look at the adjustments and the final value

Adjustments are the dollar amounts added to or taken from each comp to account for differences from your house. This is where weak reports often hide.

Fannie Mae's rules are clear on three points:

• Adjustments must reflect the market's reaction to the difference.
• A statement that only says an adjustment was made, with no support, is not acceptable.
• The value from the sales comparison must fall within the range of the adjusted sale prices of the comps.

Here is a myth worth killing. Many people believe there is a hard 15% net or 25% gross limit on adjustments. Fannie Mae says it does not have specific limits on net or gross adjustments. Large adjustments are not automatically wrong. Unsupported ones are.

In my own work, adjustments come from paired sales and the wider market, not a chart taped to the appraiser's monitor since 2009. If a report gives $15 per square foot for size or a flat amount for a bathroom with no explanation, ask where it came from.

A quick checklist you can print

If something on this list is wrong, write it down with proof. A permit, a floor plan, a listing sheet, a photo. Proof is what moves a value. Frustration, sadly, is not admissible.

What to do when you find an error

1. Get the full report. On a mortgage, your lender must give you a free copy promptly when it's done, or at least three business days before closing.
2. Sort errors into two piles: facts that are plainly wrong, and judgment calls you disagree with. The first pile is your strongest.
3. Gather proof for every item.
4. Pick up to five better sales, with their sources, if you think the comps were weak.
5. Send it through your lender as a reconsideration of value. Fannie Mae allows one borrower-initiated ROV per appraisal, and it cannot be requested after the loan closes.
6. Get a second set of eyes if the stakes are high. A desktop review is a second opinion on someone else's appraisal, checked against the evidence.

What I see in the field

When I do a desktop review, I separate two things. First, the errors that actually lowered the value without support. Those are the ones worth fighting. Second, everything else: typos, a wrong year built, a missing fireplace that the market does not pay for. Those are worth noting, but they will not move the number.

Homeowners often lead with the second pile because it is easier to spot. Lenders and appraisers respond to the first. A clear, short list of real problems, each with proof, gets read. A twelve-page letter about the appraiser's tone does not.

And sometimes a careful check shows the appraisal was right. That is worth knowing too. It is cheaper to learn the truth before you list, refinance or renegotiate than after.