text: I enjoyed the comment about properties not appraising at the Spring sale prices.  This is because no conditional offers were accepted in the feeding frenzy (which protects both buyer and seller).  These properties are being appraised for financing months after the deals were made and, often, close to the closing date.  Many of these deals have fallen apart with the properties going back on the market.  
  
  In some sad cases, buyers are re-negotiating with vendors who are about to own two properties.  And many are lying about the appraised value as a bargaining tool.  I know this first hand as I am involved in the industry.  In one case the buyer told the vendor that the appraisal came in $200,000 below the sale price.  It was actually $50,000 below, and only because the horse barn could not be included in the valuation (standard lending guidelines on rural properties).   
  
  The listing agents have no one to blame but themselves for irresponsible brokerage practices.