Why I don't get "human" nature

Krys and I had a mini-argument last night. They're always fun. We are refinancing the house and the appraiser came by yesterday without much notice - meaning, he called yesterday morning and came over yesterday afternoon, and I didn't call Krys to tell her that he was coming. This bothered her because I did not mention all the fun stuff we've done to the house to make it nicer, and she would have. I didn't mention it because, you know, I'm stupid.

So she said last night that she wished she could have cleaned up the house a bit. Now, the house is clean, but there's a lot of clutter around. Obviously, when you have kids there is going to be clutter around, but there's also a lot of clutter because I'm lazy. For instance - we had a laundry basket full of clothes that I had not folded yet (I did it last night). She was worried that the appraiser would put a large death's-head mark somewhere on our application because of the clutter.

This is why we argued (I'd say it was a discussion, but whenever I disagree with someone, I raise my voice - I grew up in a family of shouters, so it's genetic). I argued that the appraiser would just look at the physical state of the house because, let's face it, when we sell the house, the pile of laundry won't be there. Krys said it's "human nature" to factor that in - if the appraiser thinks we are messy, he will think that we don't take care of the house. Now, I can see that point, but wouldn't he look at the house to see if we take care of it, rather than deducing it from the clutter? That seems logical. She disagreed.

Krys works in the mortgage industry and has more experience with appraisers, so she's probably right, but I can't believe it. She means to tell me that our house might not be valued as high, even though we had the pool resurfaced, the background landscaped, the walls painted, and the back porch redone, simply because the house was cluttered. If that's human nature, then I want out of this stupid species.