How a Home Appraisal From a Lender Can Make or Break a Mortgage for Your First Home or Beyond

A home appraisal is one of the last major checkpoints before closing, and it's one buyers have the least control over. Once an offer is accepted, the lender orders an independent appraisal to confirm the home is worth at least what's being borrowed against it.The appraisal typically happens after making an offer and getting under contract, once a mortgage lender has a specific loan amount to verify against the home's value.If the appraised value comes in at or above the purchase price, the process moves forward as planned. If it comes in low, that gap has to be resolved before the loan can close.What a home appraisal is and why lenders require oneAn appraisal is an independent, professional estimate of a home's market value, conducted by a licensed or certified appraiser with no financial stake in the sale. Lenders require one because the home is the collateral behind the loan. If a buyer ever defaulted, the lender would need to recover close to what it lent by selling the property, so it needs an unbiased number confirming the home is actually worth that much. By the time an appraisal happens, a buyer has already done the work of finding the right house and negotiating a price. Th...