Standard for handling appraisals lower than contracted sales price

[Allison Park]

Hello, 

I am selling a property and it has appraised lower than the contacted price by $9,000.  In this case the buyer is asking for the seller to concede the difference between the sales price and the appraisal price.  Is this standard?  Can the seller avoid this buy putting in the contract that the buyer agrees to pay the difference?  Any other ways to handle this? 

[Bill B.]

You can lower the price.

The buyer can pay the extra $9k in cash, if they have it.

The buyer can walk away with their earnest money and you can lower the price $9k for the next buyer or require them to bring $9k in cash. 

TBH $9k is almost nothing unless this is $100k property. The last property I bought was listed for $325k. I offered $320k and we went in to escrow. The appraisal came back at $285k. I offered to bring an extra $5k to the table to help the seller out ($290k). But she had to drop the price $30k of the $35k shortage.