HELOC Appraisal way too low

[Bhargavi Karumanchi]

Hello,

My husband and I are in the process of starting our real estate journey. We applied for a HELOC on our primary residence and the appraisal value 100k$ lower than what we expected. Comparable houses around us sold for 200k$ more than our appraisal value. Any recommendations on what to do next?

[Kerry Baird]

I started the process with two different lenders on our primary residence.  One used an automatic valuation, similar to the Zestimate.  The other sent an appraiser to look at the interior.  These two values were very far apart.