What Happens If the Appraisal Comes In Low in Miami-Dade?

What happens if the appraisal comes in low on a Miami-Dade home?

If the appraisal lands below your contract price, your lender will only finance against the appraised value — not the price you agreed to pay. You have four realistic paths: request a reconsideration of value, renegotiate the price with the seller, bring the difference in cash, or cancel. Which of those you can actually use depends almost entirely on one thing: whether Comprehensive Rider F was attached to your contract. Florida's standard "AS IS" contract does not include an appraisal contingency on its own.

By Pedro Casanova | September 18, 2026

The call usually comes on a Tuesday afternoon. The inspection went fine, the loan is moving, and then the lender says the appraisal came back $32,000 under contract.

Almost every buyer's first question is the same: can I just walk away?

In Florida, the answer is probably not the one you're expecting. And it's the single most expensive misunderstanding I see in Miami-Dade transactions.

The Florida contract doesn't protect you the way you think

Most buyers assume a low appraisal is an automatic exit. That assumption comes from other states, or from television, or from a friend who bought in a market that uses different paperwork.

Here's the reality. The Florida Realtors/Florida Bar "AS IS" Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase — the ASIS-7x form that runs the overwhelming majority of Miami-Dade resale transactions — contains no standalone appraisal contingency. There is no paragraph that says the property has to appraise at the purchase price.

What the contract does have is a financing contingency in Paragraph 8(b). That paragraph makes the deal contingent on your lender receiving an appraisal satisfactory to the lender and sufficient for the lender to fund your loan. That sounds like the same thing. It isn't.

The difference matters in one very specific scenario, and it's the scenario that happens most often:

Your lender approves the loan anyway. The appraisal comes in low, the lender simply lends against the lower number, and you are expected to cover the gap in cash. The loan was never denied. The financing contingency never triggered. You are still under contract at the original price.

The deposit-refund language in the AS IS contract is explicit on this point — it carves the appraisal valuation out of the property-related loan conditions that entitle a buyer to a refund. Florida drew that line on purpose.

What Rider F actually does

If you want a genuine right to cancel over value, you attach Comprehensive Rider F — Appraisal Contingency at the time you write the offer. Not after. Not when the number comes back.

Rider F works like this:

• You obtain a written appraisal from a licensed Florida appraiser by a date you negotiate. If that blank is left empty, the default is at least 10 days prior to closing.
  
  
• You fill in the value the property must appraise at. If that blank is left empty, it defaults to the purchase price.
  
  
• If the appraisal comes in under that value, you deliver a copy of the appraisal to the seller within 3 days after that date, along with written notice that you are either terminating or proceeding.
  
  
• Terminate on time, and your deposit comes back.
  
  
• Miss the deadline, or fail to deliver the notice, and the contingency is waived. You continue with the contract.
  
  

That three-day window is short and unforgiving. I've seen buyers lose the protection they paid for because the appraisal sat in an inbox over a weekend.

One more thing worth saying plainly: most buyers in this market never had Rider F in the first place. It's optional, sellers dislike it, and in a competitive offer situation it often gets stripped out to make the offer cleaner. If you are writing an offer right now, that decision is being made today — not on the Tuesday the number comes back.

Your four options when the number comes in low

Say it's already happened. Here's what's actually on the table, roughly in the order I'd work through them.

1. Request a reconsideration of value. This is free and it should always be your first move. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now require lenders to disclose the borrower's right to request an ROV when the appraisal is delivered, and you get one ROV per appraisal report — so it needs to be your best shot. A serious ROV package includes three to five comparable sales the appraiser missed, documentation of renovations that weren't reflected, and a written explanation of any factual errors in the report. "I disagree" is not an ROV. Better comps are.

2. Renegotiate with the seller. This is the most common resolution, and in Miami-Dade right now it depends heavily on what you're buying — more on that below. Sometimes the seller drops to the appraised value. More often, both sides split the gap.

3. Bring the difference in cash. Nobody enjoys this, but it's worth understanding what it does: paying down an appraisal gap lowers your loan-to-value ratio, which can improve your terms and, depending on where you land, help with mortgage insurance. It's real money out of pocket, but it isn't purely a loss.

4. Cancel. Whether you get your deposit back depends on Rider F, or on your lender actually denying the loan and your delivering written notice before the Loan Approval Period expires. Outside of those paths, walking away in Florida usually means walking away from your deposit. Before you make that call, talk to your closing agent or a real estate attorney about your specific contract — the deadlines are what decide this, not the merits.

Why Miami-Dade splits in two on this question

This is where local context changes the answer, and it's why generic advice from a national article will steer you wrong here.

Miami-Dade isn't one market right now. According to August 2026 statistics from MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld, single-family inventory sits at 4.9 months of supply — a seller's market — with a median sale price of $680,000, up 3.82% year over year. Existing condos sit at 12.1 months of supply, which is firmly a buyer's market, with a median of $408,000, down slightly from $410,000 a year ago.

That gap is your negotiating leverage, or your lack of it.

If you're buying a single-family home in Kendall, Palmetto Bay, or South Miami, the seller has options. Homes are going under contract in a median of 40 days and closing at 95% of original list price. A seller who believes another buyer is behind you may hold firm — and might be right.

If you're buying a condo, the arithmetic reverses. Twelve months of supply means the seller's alternative to negotiating with you is a long, expensive wait. Condos are taking a median of 66 days to go under contract and closing at 94% of original list. A seller staring at that timeline, plus carrying costs, plus association dues, is usually more willing to meet the appraised value.

There's a second wrinkle that's unique to this market. Cash sales made up 50.5% of Miami existing condo sales in August 2026 — versus 24.2% of single-family transactions and about 27% of home sales nationally. Cash buyers don't order lender appraisals. So in the condo segment, roughly half the competition never faces this problem at all, which is exactly why a financed buyer needs the contingency question settled before the offer goes out.

Mortgage rates aren't helping the math either. Freddie Mac put the 30-year fixed at 6.67% for August 2026, but rates climbed to 7.17% by September 15. A gap you planned to absorb in cash gets harder to justify when the payment on the rest of the loan is moving too.

If you're the seller

You are not obligated to reduce your price. But understand what holding firm costs you: if the buyer walks, you go back on the market with a known low appraisal attached to the property, and the next financed buyer will likely face the same number.

Read the report before you decide. If the appraiser's problem is the comparable sales, you have a market-value issue and the number will probably repeat. If the problem is adjustments — condition, square footage, lot size, a missed renovation — you have material for an ROV, and it's worth pushing.

Nationally, appraisals come in below contract price roughly 8.5% of the time, according to Fannie Mae research. It's not common. It's also not rare enough to leave to chance on the largest transaction of your life.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Florida AS IS contract have an appraisal contingency?

No. The FR/BAR "AS IS" Residential Contract has a financing contingency in Paragraph 8(b), but no standalone appraisal contingency. If you want the right to cancel because the property didn't appraise at the purchase price, you must attach Comprehensive Rider F — Appraisal Contingency when you write the offer.

Can I get my deposit back if the appraisal comes in low in Florida?

Only if Rider F is attached and you terminate within its deadlines, or if your lender denies the loan because of the appraisal and you deliver written notice before the Loan Approval Period expires. If the lender still approves your loan at the lower value and expects you to cover the gap, you generally have no contract right to cancel and your deposit is at risk.

How long do I have to act after a low appraisal under Rider F?

Under Rider F, you must deliver a copy of the appraisal to the seller and give written notice of your election — terminate or proceed — within 3 days after the appraisal deadline in the rider. If the deadline blank was left empty, the appraisal is due at least 10 days before closing. Miss the window and the contingency is waived.

Should I waive the appraisal contingency to win a Miami-Dade offer?

It depends on which side of this market you're in. On a single-family home at 4.9 months of supply, waiving may be what makes your offer competitive — but you're accepting the full cash risk of a gap. On a condo at 12.1 months of supply, you have far less reason to give that protection away. An appraisal gap clause capping your exposure at a set dollar amount is often a better middle ground than waiving outright.

What is a reconsideration of value and does it work?

An ROV is a formal request asking the lender to have the appraiser revisit the valuation based on new information. You're allowed one per appraisal report, and it costs nothing, so it's the logical first step. It works when you can supply comparable sales the appraiser genuinely missed or correct factual errors in the report — not simply because you disagree with the conclusion.

Where this leaves you

A low appraisal isn't a crisis. It's a deadline problem. The buyers who come through it intact are the ones who decided how much appraisal risk they were carrying before they signed — and the sellers who read the report carefully before deciding whether to hold the line.

If you're about to write an offer, or you're sitting on a number that just came back short, this is exactly the kind of thing worth ten minutes with someone who works these contracts every week. I offer a free buying or selling strategy session — no pressure, just a straight look at your contract, your deadlines, and what your actual options are. You can grab a time here.

It's also worth understanding what a Miami-Dade first-time buyer really needs in cash before you get anywhere near an appraisal gap, and if you're moving within the county, the question of whether to sell first or buy first changes how much cash you'll have available to solve one. Buyers coming in from out of state should also look at what owning here costs beyond the mortgage — insurance and association dues shape how much gap you can absorb.

About Pedro Casanova

Pedro Casanova is a real estate broker that leads The KREN Group real estate team serving the Southeast Florida area. They specialize in helping people build wealth through real estate by helping buyers and sellers maximize their opportunity in every transaction. Connect with the team at www.thekrengroup.com.

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