The Appraisal Came in Low on Your Kansas City Home Sale — Now What?
You’re under contract. The boxes are half packed. Then the call comes: the appraisal came in low, and the lender says your home is worth less than the price your buyer agreed to pay.
A low appraisal doesn’t cancel your contract. It creates a gap between what the buyer agreed to pay and what their lender will finance, and somebody has to close that gap. You have five ways to do it:
- Reduce the price to the appraised value
- Ask the buyer to bring cash to cover the difference
- Split the difference — you come down partway, the buyer covers the rest
- Challenge the value through a reconsideration of value
- Let the contract terminate and go back on market
Which one fits comes down to three things: your equity, the buyer’s cash reserves, and the loan type. That last one matters more than most sellers realize — if your buyer is using FHA or VA financing, they can generally walk away and keep their earnest money over a low appraisal whether or not the contract has an appraisal contingency.
And if you’re counting on challenging the number: you can’t file that request yourself. Since 2024, the reconsideration of value goes through the buyer and the buyer’s lender — and the buyer generally gets one attempt per appraisal. Your job is to hand their side a comp package strong enough to be worth filing.
I’ve written the full breakdown here: Low Appraisal on a Kansas City Home Sale: Your Five Options — what each path costs you, the first four things to do in the first 48 hours, and how to keep this from happening on your next sale.
Dealing with one right now? Call or text me at 816-547-0893 and I’ll look at the report with you.
Bryan Bechler
Compass Realty Group · 816-547-0893
Serving Johnson County & the Kansas City Metro Since 1993
