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For Sale By Owner Appraisals
Selling without an agent means you also lose the one thing a good agent supplies for free: an outside opinion of what your house is worth.
The two ways FSBO pricing goes wrong
Too high is the common one, and it is expensive in a way that is invisible at the time. A property that sits attracts fewer viewings each week it stays listed, and buyers reading days on market conclude something is wrong with it. Owners then cut in stages, chasing the market down, and frequently end below what an accurate initial price would have achieved.
Too low happens more than people admit, particularly where an owner has not sold in a long time, has been reading national headlines rather than local sales, or has renovated and does not realise how much of it the market will pay for.
An appraisal costs a fraction of one percent of a South Florida sale price. Against either error it is cheap.
What you get that a free CMA does not
A comparative market analysis from an agent is a marketing document as well as an estimate, and the agent producing it has an interest in winning your listing. An appraisal is prepared by someone with no stake in whether you sell, at what price, or to whom, by a state-certified appraiser whose licence depends on the work being defensible.
It is also something you can put in a buyer's hands. In a negotiation where the buyer has an agent and you do not, an independent written valuation changes the conversation — you are no longer asserting a price, you are showing one.
A practical warning
Your buyer's lender will order its own appraisal, and that appraiser will not see ours. If the lender's appraisal comes in below the contract price, the financing gap is real regardless of what our report said. Our value in that moment is that you priced defensibly to begin with, so the two numbers are close.
Our experience
Appraising South Florida since 1992, 34,000+ appraisals across Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Broward counties. Residential only.
How the assignment runs
Inspection, comparable analysis, and a report addressed to you — typically inside a week, timed so you list on fresh evidence. We flag the condition items a buyer's appraiser will notice, which is your chance to fix or price them deliberately instead of discovering them under contract. Bring the report out when negotiation starts; watching a buyer's agent recalibrate against a signed appraisal is usually worth the fee on its own.
Pricing is the whole FSBO game
The listing data is unambiguous: overpriced homes sit, sitting reads as damage, and the eventual chase-down sells below an accurate day-one price. Underpricing simply donates equity. An agent's CMA solves this for represented sellers; unrepresented sellers need the same discipline from somewhere, and an independent appraisal is the strongest version of it — evidence with no listing to win and no commission riding on the answer.
Call 561-853-2129 or use the contact form.
Questions we hear about this work
Is a pre-listing appraisal worth it for FSBO?
It is the piece of professional pricing you give up by not hiring an agent, at a fraction of a commission. Mispricing in either direction typically costs multiples of the fee.
Can I show the appraisal to buyers?
Yes — that is half its value. A written independent valuation reframes negotiation from your assertion to a documented number, especially against a represented buyer.
Will the buyer's lender use my appraisal?
No, their lender orders its own. Yours protects the pricing decision so the two numbers land close — which is what keeps financed deals together.
How current should a pre-listing appraisal be?
List within a couple of months of the effective date. If the market moves or you delay, an update is cheaper than a mispriced launch.