My soon to be ex wife is having an ind. appraiser come in and look at our home, Is there anything i should be wary of? He (or she?) is a complete stranger and i am lettign them into the house that i am almost assuredly keeping after the divorce. They are appraising it to know the "equity" in the house, so they will know what i "owe" her. She asked i not be present, i told her no way. just nervous i guess.

I'd get my own appraiser to counter.

of course you will be there.
She really has your best interests at heart, right?

Good for you. Be wary.

An actual professional appraiser this is no issue. Take some photos to compare to assessed description, maybe confirm some measurements etc. but it will only be to
Get market value nothing related to equity position.

My atty adv i hire my own to do my own assesment, I will be doing this soon, just makes me nervous, how do i now this guy is not working for her atty and up to something shady...idk, paranoid LOL

I am not sure what an "Independent" Appraiser is, but would imagine that they would have a set of ethics and a license. JALLEN will know or others with more experience. Is your ex paying the fee in total??

Are you asking about security or if they will value the house in an unbiased way?
I wouldn't leave cash and jewelry around just like with any other person you don't know but they are licensed normally.
You want it apppraised fairly so you don't over pay of course. Do you know any realtors that could give you a quick estimate to be sure its in the ballpark?

Get his business card and see his ID BEFORE he enters your house, just to make sure he is who she says he is. Get a copy of the appraisal.....if it looks spot on, then I'd say let it be. If it looks high compared to comps then get your own appraisal.

You don't need to be there. If her appraiser is going to be "shady," you can't stop it by being there.

You stop it by having your own appraisal.

gotchya, the idea of some stranger having access to my house freaks me out LOL, thanks fellas.

What does your lawyer say? That's the advice you should be listening to, not your invisible friends here.

she was adamant about me being there.

Trust nothing your almost ex wants to do. Hire your own appraiser to counter hers. Be present whenever someone is on *your* property.

An appraisal is "an opinion of value." Hopefully the opinion is that of someone who, by training and experience and intelligence, is somewhat related to actual market value.

I've seen apraisals prepared by MAI appraisers vary by 100%. One appraiser spent an entire day trying to figure out what we wanted him to say. He could justify anything between $600,000 and $1,300,000.

The key is figuring out what the appraiser took into account, how comparisons were made.

You or your attorney will get a copy and look at it carefully to see if there are any obvious errors, disagreements, etc.

I liked to be present during the inspection, not to follow the guy around shadowing him, but on the premises to answer questions if any. Most of the appraisal information gathering and analysis is done at the office. The inspection is merely to take photos, measurements maybe, verify condition, etc.

Do what your attorney advises.

thank you

My mother in Florida had an issue with an appraisal last year. She was selling a house that she had done considerable upgrades/updates to, due to it being damaged by a hurricane. The appraisor used incorrect information, lowering the value. When she tried to have it corrected, the bank told her tough cookies, appraisal stands once done.

I don't know if this was shady, or incorrect information. I believe she still got the buyer to pay something reasonably close to what she wanted for it.

I would supervise the appraiser the entire time. He might not be an appraisal at all and might be planting listening devices or camera's or who knows that.....or retrieving valuables the wife hid a while ago and forgot.......

I have no answers for you, just a little wish that everything goes as smoothly as possible and it's a fair assessment. The one thing I would suggest is getting your own independent assessment. If it comes in significantly lower then ask that it's averaged out, or ask for a third one and that all three are averaged out.

As far as being home, there is no way in hell I let someone in my house without me being there. That includes a trusted contractor, no way I would let someone I don't know in. If something goes wrong (theft or accidental damage) it becomes a he said/she said thing.

I have learned the hard way not to trust people unfortunately.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
I'd get my own appraiser to counter.

+1000

ETA:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
I've seen apraisals prepared by MAI appraisers vary by 100%. One appraiser spent an entire day trying to figure out what we wanted him to say. He could justify anything between $600,000 and $1,300,000.
Do what your attorney advises.

The joke around real estate folks I've spoken with is that MAI stands for "Made As Instructed" (It actually stands for some level of certification from the Appraisal Institute), so I am not surprised.

+2000 on following your attorney's advice.