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Guest

Good morning,

I want to know if i have grounds to sue an appraiser. we bought a home in 2004 with all intentions of living in it for 30 years. we did extensive remodeling, new sheetrock, lighting, outlets, flooring, tile, cabinets- solid maple, granite, metal roof, stain grade base/crown molding, solid wood 6 panel doors, french doors with blinds. the list goes on and on. we decided to sell after 7 years and moved back in to the country. we had an offer and things moved forward, the appriasal was done and came in way low, $95k. and they stated that all the materials and work was average and the 8k metal roof, they stated that there were no comps in the area, therefore no upgrade would be given. the comps that they are using are homes that are 40-60 years old, have wood paneling walls and .99 cent ceramic tile, hm dpt cabinets and particle board counters. we are in danger of losing our buyer and the appraiser isnt budging on the price. what recourse do we have if we lose this sale due to a complete incompetent appriaser. she was a school teacher up until 3 years ago and now does appraisals and whats really odd is she did the appraisal, but the owner of the company signed the appraisal. why didnt she? is that legal? what can we do?

apexoffice · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 7:08 am Post subject:

I would definitely say you have a case here. What happened is incredibly illegal; particularly the signature. She cannot complete the appraisal and have the owner sign the report. She is allowed to assist in the completion of the report with just his signature, but her involvement should be disclosed in the report and he should have been present at the inspection.

You need to contact your state appraisers board right away to file a complaint. I would hold off on a law suit until you get the results of the investigation. If found guilty by the board, he may have to surrender his license. That also provides the perfect evidentiary support for a civil suit.

In the mean time, I would advise the lender to get a second opinion from another, more ethical appraiser, and let them know about your plans to file a complaint to the board. Trust me, they do not want this mess on their hands. While there is no guarantee that another appraiser will make the number you want, hopefully you will at least get a more competent appraiser that can appropriately explain the nuances of the market, not just "there are no comps".

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:35 am Post subject:

The appraiser is probably a trainee and had a supervisory appraiser sign off on the work. This is completely ok, as long as the trainee was mentioned, and the supervisor signed off on it. Your main problem lies with comps. A lender will not lend financing for a home that is over priced. Meaning if you are trying to sell for 200k but all the like homes are going for 140k, the lender will not agree with the value of the home, even if an appraisal was supplied to support the 200k. Most lenders use an automated system to back up appraisals, so the lender would find out the value was over inflated. The problem you face is the principle of substitution. A interested party to purchase a home similar to yours, has many options in todays market. So because you have upgraded cabinets, and a nice floor, the issue is, so do all the other comps that have "recently sold" in your area. Those home, do have floors, they do have walls, a roof and cabinets. Yes yours may be more modern or better material, but you really dont get the dollar for dollar return when you upgrade materials in your home. The person willing to purchase a home, will pay less for the same home next door. What I would do is look at the comps that they used, see if there are any other comps and have another appraiser look at the adjustments the appraiser gave you regarding your upgrades to make sure they are inline with standard adjustments in your area.

Guest

hm? what about the comment stating that we have a metal roof, but there are no comps in this area, so no upgrade was given? and you can serious compare 40 year old wood panel to new sheetrock walls? and .99 ceramic tile to 4.99 porcelain tile? particle board cabinets to real solid wood? what a joke. obviously the profession and the real estate world are a joke, filled with incompetence and a serious lack of good opinion. and to top it off, buyers are completely clueless. go ahead and buy the pc of crap next door and in 5 years you will spend 20-25k updating.

Guest

the individual who performed the apprisal name is listed as assisting in this appraisal. why cant she sign it then? whats the reason he had to sign it? how can he sign it when he wasnt present or even viewed the home.

apexoffice · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:13 pm Post subject:

Likely the reason he signed the report was because the lender required a classification higher than she currently holds. It is acceptable that she assisted, however, he should have been present at the inspection. As the signing appraiser, he is required to fulfill all elements of the scope of work identified in the report as well as all certifications. Regardless of her level of assistance, he is still required at a minimum to inspect the subject and comparable sales, inspect the neighborhood, research, verify and analyze the data, and develop the opinion of value. That doesn't really leave much room for constructive assistance other than data gathering and data entry perhaps, or holding the other end of the tape measure during the inspection. However, I would be willing to bet she did the whole appraisal from start to finish and all he did was put his name on it. If it was an FHA loan, that is a whole other ballgame.

As for the upgrades, I cannot speak on the nuances of your market. The market is made up of buyers and sellers and the job of the appraiser is to analyze and report on what the market is doing. I can say that here in my area, having a metal roof does not necessarily command a premium and depending on the area, neither does some upgrades, like in any "buyers market". However, every market is different, and I think that you should be given a better explanation than "there are no comps".

I stand by my suggestion to file a formal complaint to the appraisers board. What this appraiser did was unethical regardless of the valuation. If it was FHA, they would be interested to know about it also.

raymond · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 5:16 pm Post subject:

If the appraisal was for a Conforming program, I'd hire another Appraiser and get another appraisal. If it's FHA, you'll have to wait until the Appraisal expires - which is 4 months. The new appraisal will cost $450.00 or so, but it's a cheap price to pay to ensure your sale goes through.

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