What should a listing agent give the appraiser?

A good packet is evidence, not a sales pitch

I have been handed a lot of packets. Some were gold. Some were a glossy brochure with the word stunning on every page and a sunset photo of a house that faces north.

The packets that help are the ones that save me time finding facts I would otherwise have to dig up. NAR's own guidance for agents says the same thing: bring a packet about your listing, include MLS data sheets on similar homes, and add short notes on why a sale is or is not relevant. Same builder? Remodeled kitchen? Backs to the freeway? Say so in one line.

Here is the frame I want you to keep in mind. You are not there to tell me what the house is worth. You are there to make sure I know everything the market would know. Facts over feelings, in a manila folder.

What to put in the packet

Keep it to a few pages. If I need a forklift, it is too long.

• MLS data sheets on competing sales, each with one or two sentences on why it fits or why it does not. Pointing out a bad comp is as helpful as pointing out a good one.
• The legal description. It confirms exactly what is being sold.
• The most recent tax bill. NAR points out it can show whether the home sits in a special tax district, which buyers notice even if sellers forget.
• A dated list of upgrades: roof, windows, kitchen, baths, HVAC, permits. Dates and scope, not adjectives.
• Offer and showing activity. How many showings, how many offers, how fast. NAR calls this kind of data demonstrative of demand. Some agents attach a simple spreadsheet of the offers.
• The sales contract, for a purchase. NAR's appraiser independence brief says agents may provide a copy.

One business card. Not a magnet, not a branded pen, not a candle that smells like closing day.

Why I still have to check everything you hand me

This part is not personal. Under Freddie Mac's guidelines, as NAR explains it, when an appraiser uses information from a party with a financial interest in the sale, that information has to be verified by disinterested third-party sources. You get paid when the deal closes. That makes you an interested party, even if you are the most honest agent in the county.

In practice that means I check your square footage against records and measurements, your upgrade list against permits and photos, and your comps against the MLS and public records. A packet that holds up under that check makes my job faster and makes your listing look exactly as good as it is.

A packet that does not hold up does the opposite. If the upgrade list says new roof and the roof says 1998, now I am wondering about everything else in the folder.

The lines you should not cross

Appraiser independence rules exist so that nobody leans on the person setting the value. NAR's own advice to agents is direct: do not try to influence the appraiser, do not say your client needs a certain value, and do not tell the appraiser which comps to use.

There is a difference between offering and directing. Under Dodd-Frank, a party can ask the appraiser to consider additional, appropriate property information, including other comparable sales. Handing me three sales with notes is offering. Telling me I must use them is directing.

• OK: "Here are three sales I think compete, and here is why."
• OK: "We had 22 showings and four offers in the first weekend."
• Not OK: "We need it to come in at the contract price."
• Not OK: anything that sounds like a gift basket with a number written on the card.

Also remember that once the report is done, NAR notes that communication goes through the lender, not directly to the appraiser.

Why offer data matters, and where it stops

Offer data tells me how hard buyers competed for this house. That is real market information. It can help explain a sale price above the list price.

But the contract price does not set value by itself. One buyer and one seller agreeing is not the whole market. NAR makes the same point: a sale price does not automatically equal fair market value, because the appraiser has to form an independent opinion. What the offers do is show the reaction. What the closed sales do is show whether that reaction is in line with what the rest of the neighborhood has actually paid.

The strongest packets connect the two. "Four offers, and here are two recent sales of similar homes that also went over asking" is a story backed by evidence. "Four offers, so it is obviously worth more" is a feeling.

What to do before the appraiser shows up

1. Build the packet the day you go pending. Waiting until the morning of the inspection is how a bad comp sneaks in.
2. Pick sales a buyer would have toured instead. Same area, similar size, similar condition, recent. Note each one in a sentence.
3. Flag the traps. If a nearby sale looks great but had a pool, a view or a big lot your listing lacks, say so.
4. Attach proof. Permits, invoices, dates. The upgrade list is only as strong as its paper trail.
5. Summarize activity: showings, offers, days on market, and whether the offers were above list.
6. Hand it over and step back. If the appraiser will not take it, NAR suggests sending it by email and copying the lender, listing what you tried to share.

Then let the evidence do the talking. It is better at it than either of us.