I have struggled with this question for years. And I think many of you have too. But today I made a decision to write it.
I am going to make it public when appraisers are unprofessional and incompetent, and are not willing to listen to any appeal, simply because they don't have to as they think they are "god". Realtors are written up on Yelp and other sites all the time. But appraisers are not.
If you read from the first paragraph I am upset, then yes you are right.
Gerald A Cole from Reliable Residential (??????), is one of those. Let's summarize for you.
An appointment was made for FRI at 12.30 pm. I called him that day at 10 am to confirm the appointment was still on. He confirmed.
At 11.20 he called me he was at the property, but could not find the house (?). He also asked if/how he could get in. After I asked him to wait for me to open the door, and I would be there in 15 minutes, but he had already yelled from behind the gate. He bothered the owner to open the door. He was obnoxious to the owner as he wanted to park his car on the inside (behind the gate) because he could not find a parking space (?) on the street. Funny because when I arrived there was street parking available.
I introduced myself as the listing agent. I showed him the property on the inside. We then walked outside, and he informed me the lender was not going to accept that these were single family houses. I told him the tax records/prelim clearly stated they are and also showed him a comparable, exactly the same quality house, same year, just a little smaller two doors down as a SFR. He again told me the lender would not accept that. He then informed me it would not make any difference (?) in appraised value, and that the property would appraise for value. My answer was simply that if the value came in I do not care what he tells the lender. I know what is on the records.
But, the appraisal did not come in at value. He used active and pending listing as comparable, and used sold listing more than a mile away when there were several properties within 0.3 miles radius.
The property I had pointed out to him (two doors down) appraised 4 months ago at $500 per sqft. The subject property was listed at 6% less. He appraised it at $448 per sqft. That is a whopping 10.4% less the equivalent comparable property that was a "perfect" comparable. He "used" as reason for a lower appraisal that the property had Bart noise, but so did the comparable!!!!!!!!!! In the first section of his appraisal he mentions the contract price that is INCORRECT. He also incorrectly indicated property is ATTACHED, which it is not. He used active and pending comparables.
The buyers agent appealed but of course, as usual, the appraiser did not give in. They always think they know better than you of course. I have a brokers license, and I know EXACTLY how to appraise a property. But is it not funny that they need to know what the property is in contract for before they appraise a property? Does this not mean they have no clue to begin with, or at least this one?
Remember NEVER to use this appraiser again, and please tell all your colleague agents not to use this guy. He is a member of Assurant. He needs to be "evicted" from the appraisal pool. Maybe my blood pressure will come down then.
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