We sold and bought a house a couple of years ago. When we sold we used a realtor who really knew the area and was able to market the house well. He had us make a couple of repairs and when we put it on the market is sold in 2 days for full price. Our area was unusual since no two houses were even similar so he had to go pretty far afield for the comps, but he did his homework and the appraisal came through with no problem.