Appraisals magically come in at the exact offer price unless the offer is just completely off the charts insane. Appraisals are often times BS or, at best, just whatever you need them to be within some rather large margin (+/- 10%? 20%?).
The first question he asked was what I was listing it for. He also made it clear that he would not physically inspect the house or do anything more than a cursory comp search.
Real estate sales are just loaded down with parasites looking to skim off of every transaction. IMHO it is an industry badly in need of disruption, but sadly a lot of the middlemen have their positions enshrined in laws, regulations, and corporate policy. Another good example: why do we pay Realtors a percentage of the sale price instead of a fixed rate? They're basically glorified babysitters that are just there to make sure you aren't stealing everything from the homes.