Over appraisals

Guest

My husband and I took out a few quity loans mainly and unfortunately to pay off some debt but that besides the point, we,re paying for that now. The problem comes in where we took out our last two equity loans with e-loan and as of Jan. 2008 they had appraised our home ( not sure how but they never physically came here to appraise it ) at 500K. We took out an amount that brought our mortg. up to 370K. They told us over and over and over again how we really could take out more if we wanted to...but luckily at least we were smart enough to stop there. However we weren,t lucjy enough in the long haul. As of TODAY our home, in less than 2 years has depreciated a little over 200k which calculates to a little over 40%. Now...my question is...we are not Nevada or California...we live in a small town in Connectciut where ,... and I researched this...the average home similar to ours has maybe depreciated 20% I definately believe we were taken for a ride...can we sue this appraiser? With the economy being the way it is and fully aware of the depreciating market, I could,ve dealt with 20% decline...but 40% somehow seems wrong, and the only explanation I can come up with was a totally off the wall appraisal! The majority of homes in our area have lost anywhere from 40-80K off of their homes...we have lost over 200K Do we have recourse?

apexoffice · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:05 am Post subject:

You can have an appraisal review done by another appraiser. That should give you some insight into the validity of the previous report. Based on that review, you can then discuss the results with an attorney and decide if a law suit is in your best interest. I would advise that in your search for a reviewer, that you select an appraiser with experience in litigation support and expert witness testimony. You should also be upfront with the appraiser regarding your intentions. The cost will be considerably higher than a typical appraisal done for the lender and the appraiser will also most likely charge by the hour for court time if needed.

Finding a good appraiser is a lot like finding a good attorney, they cost more but it is worth it in the long run.

I hope this helps!

Guest

Yes, this did help and I appreciate the advice. Am sorry I didn,t do a spell check on the above though.

thanks
K

gmakerley · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:53 pm Post subject:

kat i don't know where you are in connecticut, but we've been one of the more fortunate states in that people have lost less equity than in many other states. i'm surprised to read your story, and i guess i'd have to be in agreement with you that your home was overvalued. i think the difficulty you may have is with documenting the errors. if you have a copy of the appraisal work - i hope - then that will help you a great deal. i think ben is quite right that you'll probably pay a higher sum for a review appraisal under the circumstances, but it's definitely worth your trouble to investigate.

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