When we had our initial appraisal done for getting the construction loan, we were very concerned about it. The comps in our area aren't good for a variety of reasons, but the simple explanation is that the new construction of homes similar to ours have not been sold by original owners. By the bank's rules we couldn't communicate directly with the appraiser, but our builder could. We made sure he had a list of all the customized things we're doing including things we've already purchased in preparation - like hand blown glass pendant lights and a third party energy audit we had done. When we got a copy of the appraisal it included many of the things on our list. I can't say how much it affected the bottom line, but it sure seemed to help. We mostly wanted the appraiser to know it wasn't a cookie cutter house. My advice would be to do what you can to get that message across. Think of it like marketing your home for selling. If the appraiser is going to do a walk through you could have a printed list in each room of what sets your house apart. We did this once when selling a custom built home. Printed the sheets on colored paper so it was easy to spot in each room. We didn't leave it to the realtors coming through to pick out those features. Good luck! We know the stress -

Overall, I was (tolerably) ok with the home appraising lower than cost to build, as we were using ICF, which our area doesn't recognize as having extra value, and we brought 30% of the build price to the table. We don't live in an HOA, so our subdevelopment is a mix of all sorts of styles, but mostly country ranches and city-type homes plopped onto 2-acre lots. But the comments....?! On one visit he complained about our PAINT COLORS (beige, not greige). Everyone (re)paints when they buy a home! The next, our light fixtures (again, very classic, old-world style to match the home, with only a few pot lights placed for accent lighting on walls)! He also didn't like we didn't have patio doors off the living room to his idea of the 'backyard', which would have looked TERRIBLY out of place since it is a formal living room, and my 'backyard' is 30' to the property line, while my side yard is 200' to the property line, and is accessed by a massive paneled wood door. So...our tastes just didn't match. He seemed to accept/adknowledge that we did a good job making the interior and exterior of the home match style-wise, but he really would've rather seen a greige home with minimal casings, carpeted stairs, a giant block cutout for the tv, etc etc... ...so it was weird, because we've gotten numerous compliments form complete strangers (mailman, 3rd party contractors, neighbors), from everyone but our appraiser! @rockybird - Homes in Winnipeg, MB, Canada are now almost all drafter-designed by 'big builders' who schlep together a floor plan based on the newest thing on HGTV, then use Chief Architect or other softwar to 'autoroof' the type of houses I linked to. Almost all new homes look like that - a snout garage and a million hip roof jutouts! But they have stainless steel appliances, a corner pantry, hardwood tile, and people are buying them! I am amazed when I travel to the USA (recently South Carolina) and see the wonderfully designed, classical-style, equisitely detailed homes that just don't exist up here!

Buying a home contigent on selling a home is essentially a contract saying “I might buy your home, if all the stars line up.” Contingencies are an OUT to a contract, and home sell contingencies are the worst kind because the seller has little control over the domino effect the buyer has placed them in, yet the seller will be the one who bears the burden of the deal falling apart. This is magnified with a new home build because builders always have sunk costs even before the first shovel hits the ground, permit fees, soil tests, engineering fees, staff time, etc. Thousands are at risk, I am surprised a CMA is all that was requested. Additional requests to play the contingency game could be non-refundable deposit (skin in the game on your part), approval for your marketing plan, list price, and price changes as needed to get the home sold, etc. Never met a home seller that didn’t proclaim for certain their home would sell right away at the price they want, yet the number of listings that don’t sell and expire is pretty high. As for the argument that the builder can just sell the new home if you can’t perform, it will likely be at best sold for cost, or even a loss. If you could buy a $500,000 new home where someone else got to pick everything, or a $500,000 home where you get to pick everything, which one would you choose? Your builder sounds naive if all they are asking for is a CMA.

As with any profession there is a wide range of ability in those that practice that profession. Because someone graduated from architectural school doesn't mean that they come out at the other end as a great, or even good, architect. We have seen plenty of really bad plans here that were designed by actual architects. We worked with one that would be a great person to have a beer with, but turned out not to be so great to design our house. Had a bias against us building a large house. Did not listen to our repeated requests to do, and show us, intermediate design steps, before spending hours/days doing a complete redesign that affected the whole floorplan, and then blamed us when we didn't like the results. After a few weeks he threw his hands up in the air, blamed us and walked away, keeping the money we had paid without delivering the agreed upon product. We wrote it off as wasted time, money and a lesson learned, and then interviewed a couple of local architects. Found one that we enjoyed working with in person, designed a plan we are happy with, and it was a positive experience for all parties involved. As with most things in life, the solutions aren't always black or white, there is a lot of gray area in between.