Update on appraisal, part two
| I just heard back from my loan processor, and the appraiser has refused to change the value of our house, despite the list of errors in the appraisal and the 35 pages of documentation I sent along with the form to contest the appraisal. We now have two options. 1. Hire another appraiser for $280. If the value comes back at 10% higher than the first appraisal ($200k), then we get the $280 back. If it doesn't, we are out the $280 and we won't be getting any additional loan money because we already have a HEL based on an 80% LTV of the $230k appraisal from January. 2. Continue with our plan to aggressively pay the $33k construction costs back that currently reside on 0% credit cards. I'm leaning towards #2, but I think part of that is just because I'm pissed off. We have 23k available on a HELOC that we can use in a pinch. Any suggestions? Labels: $37k debt payoff, 0% BT, appraisal, garage |
posted by savvy at 6/14/2007 11:21:00 AM
Comments on "Update on appraisal, part two"
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Anonymous said ... (12:39 PM) :
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Hazzard said ... (12:47 PM) :
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Anonymous said ... (7:36 PM) :
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donna jean said ... (8:41 PM) :
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Anonymous said ... (1:23 PM) :
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Kathy said ... (10:30 PM) :
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savvy said ... (6:40 AM) :
post a commentAdmittedly I'm less than knowledgeable about real estate, but if you're going to stay in the house a while, doesn't a lower value benefit you (less property tax $$$)? Why not just wait until you want to move (in five or ten years) before getting it re-appraised?
I think Savvy probably mostly cares about the assessed value. Just because they had a crappy appraiser doesn't mean that the city/county will assess it any lower. The appraisal is really only relevant for their loan etc.
Savvy, sorry to hear that your appraiser won't budge, although it doesn't surprise me. I'd just aggressively pay down the money and then you'll be even better off!
I agree. If you've got the capacity to do so; pay it off and be done with it. The satisfaction of less debt would be far more gratifying than knowing I proved the appraiser wrong.
I sympathize with your situation and know that I would be all over option number one. It's a principal/concept issue for me, especially after contesting it (with good information).
My partner would push me to just get over it while I'd be hyper focused on proving the appraiser wrong. Part of me thinks that option two is best, but I'd find a way to justify the extra appraisal cost (being sure I'd get it back would factor in) just to see if I'm off base on the home value or not. Good luck!
The appraiser appears to be incompetent at worst and sloppy at best. His/her client is the lender, not you, but you have two options.
First, if the appraiser is an employee of a licensed,certified appraiser you can call the principal of he firm and talk to him/her. Second, you can file a formal complaint with your state's appraisal oversight agency. That's the state agency that is responsible for licensing or certifying appraisers. Before filing the complaint, however, I would write a letter to the appraiser/principal outlining the errors and stating that if they are not corrected, you will file a formal complaint.
I AM an appraiser. :) I can tell you that the absolute, BEST way to ensure that an appraiser won't "play ball" or change a value is to send him a list of errors he made. It's human nature (especially if any of the errors ARE errors)to label the homeowner as a pain in the butt who is going to file some sort of complaint and therefore, not to be nice. It's the old "more flies with honey" thing.
Actually, an appraiser who refuses to change a value is most likely a BETTER appraiser than the one who will put whatever number you need on one, no questions asked. You may have actually hired that rare bird, the ethical appraiser. (BTW, $280 is DIRT CHEAP for an appraisal...here in north Florida, I get $400.)
Kathy - in order to contest the appraisal with the lender, I had to fill out a form and send a list of the reasons. That included pointing out the blatant errors in the report (overstating the number of bedrooms in comps) as well as including the two other appraisals we had done BEFORE the $50k in renovations that were $25-$30k higher than this appraisal (both of the previous two were also hired by lenders, not us). He made three blatant errors in our appraisal, and I think he did an overall very sloppy job.
As a matter of fact, he was supposed to reappraise the house at the lenders request, and he told them he did, but I know he never did it.