We had an appraiser come in this weekend, as we are considering refinance options, including a reverse mortgage. To set the stage, when the appraiser was fifteen minutes late, I called his cell phone to discover that he had "double-booked" himself and wanted to know if he could come at 2 pm instead of 9 am?

I was polite, and agreed to the change in time so I wouldn't come off as a hard ass.

When the guy shows up, he was about as friendly as a sack full of doorknobs. I mentioned that he knows the neighborhood, since he told me he lives in a nearby subdivision. We chatted about how long he had been in the city, I was trying to just be conversant with him as he prepared to do the walk through. He immediately started in on how lousy the city services were and how high the taxes in Broomfield are. I told him that I agreed with him, but I liked the city. He went off on a rant about the lack of public transit here . . . so I just let it pass. He asked if he could start the walkthrough and suggested that he would just walk to each room, alone, take a few pictures and continue, unescorted.

I did not feel comfortable with that, and told him that I would accompany him, just so that he would see all of the architectural features. We walked, not talking as he took in our house. My wife took over when it was time to go to the basement, since I needed to take the puppy out to the bathroom. When in the basement he told my wife that he was unable to see if the walls had any cracks, since we left the builder installed insulation on the walls, and we covered the floor where our home gym is located with rubber interlocking mats. She told him that our basement was the largest closet in the house, explaining that we had both lost our parents recently and had inherited a good deal of antique furniture from both. He snapped at her, telling her that furniture, and light fixtures like we put in upstairs are considered moveable and wouldn't make any difference.

She was put off, by his sharp demeanor and so was I. When they came back upstairs, I gave him a rundown of improvements that we had made in the ten years we've been here: 1500 SF of hardwood floors in place of carpet, sliding drawers in every cabinet in the kitchen, new water heater, pressure relief valve and dishwasher. I also told him that the roof had been completely replaced 3 years ago and we had painted the exterior and interior two years ago.

I had several flyers on the table with our paperwork that proved that the last three homes in our neighborhood that were close sold from $695K to $750K in less than 3 days.

He made some lame comment that an appraiser won't estimate what a home would sell for, only what it is worth. I bit my tongue, but wanted to ask the man why Redfin and Realtor dot com both estimated that our home would sell for $625. We back up to the County Commons open space and he did mention that and the extensive landscaping in his small talk with us.

I guess I am rubbed the wrong way by his attitude about the community, his crappy attitude and his comment that and appraisal doesn't reflect what a home ought to sell for. . .

Am I off base in my opinion? Should I get the lender, who split the cost, involved in this? Should I challenge his objectivity and request a new appraisal due to his attitude? Finally, should I let the lender know about my perception of this jamoke?

I haven't gotten the appraisal back, but I am stewing about this since he left.

It used to be, long ago and far away, that when you wanted an appraisal, or needed one, you got referrals, or already knew one, etc. picked who you wanted, agreed on the price of his service and the appraisal was done and delivered to you, the lender, buyer, whoever.

Over the years, some of these appraisals turned out to be less reliable than desired. Some were done by interested parties, like your brother in law, or a cousin, or a friend of a friend. One of the key issues was what figure was desired, wink, wink, nod, nod. If (s)he could make that figure work, that’s what it came in at.

It was quite an unfortunate circumstance, a joke, that the professional designator, MAI, stood for “Made As Instructed.”

Qualifications and standards gradually tightened up, but when a great many banks took back a great many properties in the great mortgage crisis of the last decade, things got serious, and regulated.

I don’t think it is allowed anymore to hire your own appraiser. The lender selects the appraiser from a list of qualified specially licensed appraisers. There are limits to what they can consider, must consider, must not cnsider, and it all has to be justified. Only one appraisal can be done, no more oopsies, until you get the right number.

You or your broker are no longer the customer, so no need to curry favor, make a good impression or any of that old fashioned nonsense. You have neither choice nor say. It’s the lender they must impress and cultivate.

quote:

Over the years, some of these appraisals turned out to be less reliable than desired.

I have several IT clients that are in this business.
It's not that they are not qualified or talented to come up with a fair number~
It is that they "tailor" the number to please the client, a bank in many cases.
They have to in order to get future orders/business.
A bit on the corrupt side if you ask me but that is the way it is done.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Over the years, some of these appraisals turned out to be less reliable than desired.

I have several IT clients that are in this business.
It's not that they are not qualified or talented to come up with a fair number~
It is that they "tailor" the number to please the client, a bank in many cases.
A bit on the corrupt side if you ask me but that is the way it is done.

You mean, to meet lender requirements.

One of the excesses of the mortgage melt down was the tightening up of appraisals. This is silly, because an appraisal is an opinion based on conditions known at the time and a year later, those conditions may no longer exist.

It is true, however, that when lenders stsrted really looking at the appraisals provided in the 2006-09 era, many of them were poorly done, did not take into account important factors, stretched to get the number, etc.

I would give the lender feedback before the appraiser gets back with his estimates.

Next time, I would suggest not chatting up the appraiser even just to be polite. Treat him like a stranger going through your home, he's not a visitor. You talking him up talking about what improvements you made might have made him feel you were pressuring him and that's why he wanted to go through the house unescorted. It's kind of hard to take notes of your observations while listening to the homeowner.

Just be nice, accompany the appraiser, and answer any questions that may come up. He knows what he's looking for.

You shouldn't have to list what improvements you've done unless he asks for it unless it's something invisible like you added solar paneling or double pane windows. He knows what he's looking at. He vaues your house the way it is now, not at how much it is the way you bought it then add the improvements you did.

Having flyers for him was, in my opinion, bordering on rude and definitely ignorant. Part of the report an appraiser includes is what comparable houses in the area have sold for on a square foot basis.

Just give the lender your feedback with regards to how you feel before you get the appraisal. If he gets enough negative feedback, the lender will drop the appraiser. But don't challenge his objectivity, you haven't seen the numbers yet.

I agree you were a bit involved. A simple greeting and I have always been told by the lender to provide a spreadsheet of recent improvements so I have.
I don’t follow them around I just let them do their thing.

The last house we sold the first buyers appraiser came in about 75k under what the house had appraised for 6 years prior with quite a few upgrades done.
We ended up contesting and he realized he had mixes up the documents from different houses and came back with a proper appraisal.
The buyer was still able to walk because of the “initial appraisal”

I have one scheduled for next week myself for some refinancing as well.

Good luck it may not be as bad as you are expecting.

The last one I dealt with missed two buildings on the property, a 750 Sq ft house and a barn. He couldn't understand why I would not pay the fee for his Appraisal to the bank that we were trying to get a loan from.

He included pictures of the buildings in his report, but no value for them.

I ended up filing a complaint to the state board that licenses these folks. I received several calls after that asking me to please pull my complaint, so I guess it cost him something.