- Sep 29, 2000
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I'm in the middle of selling/buying a house. So far the entire thing has been almost completely derailed by appraisers, and I'm angry enough that I want to do something to fix the problem in general. This is a field that is completely subjective and has almost no one to actually answer to if their work is incorrect or invalid. The banks don't seem to care, and the consumers and real estate agents have absolutely no power to get anything re-evaluated.
On the house that I am selling I had multiple full price offers after one weekend on the market. The potential buyers all said that there is absolutely nothing available that compares to my house in the price range. It is in a really nice neighborhood, has been completely upgraded (including a $30k kitchen put in last year), etc. The appraisal came back $23k low. The agents simply couldn't believe it, and they shouldn't have. Upon further inspection 2 of the three comparables were taken from an undesirable neighborhood nearby mine. The agent actually went to the homes to take pictures. One was in complete disrepair, yet was compared 1/1 with mine because of square footage. I got zero value increase due to the upgrades (kitchen, hardwood floors, etc.).
On the house I am buying, a different appraiser decided to take $30K of value from the house based solely on the neighborhood. This is a very nice neighborhood in a good location, and is in no way different from the neighborhoods where the comparables reside. There was absolutely no reasoning or explanation given for the reduction. I actually asked for a review on that basis and all they did was say that they stand by their initial appraisal. They didn't provide any explanation. As the buyer there was nothing else I could do.
I'm ready to start writing letters to newspapers and State representatives to see if I can get any traction. We live in a world full of data. There is no reason why such subjectivity should be included in this business. It was bad during the bubble, because appraisers would basically just inflate things to make sales happen, and now the overreaction is killing lots of potential deals.
On the house that I am selling I had multiple full price offers after one weekend on the market. The potential buyers all said that there is absolutely nothing available that compares to my house in the price range. It is in a really nice neighborhood, has been completely upgraded (including a $30k kitchen put in last year), etc. The appraisal came back $23k low. The agents simply couldn't believe it, and they shouldn't have. Upon further inspection 2 of the three comparables were taken from an undesirable neighborhood nearby mine. The agent actually went to the homes to take pictures. One was in complete disrepair, yet was compared 1/1 with mine because of square footage. I got zero value increase due to the upgrades (kitchen, hardwood floors, etc.).
On the house I am buying, a different appraiser decided to take $30K of value from the house based solely on the neighborhood. This is a very nice neighborhood in a good location, and is in no way different from the neighborhoods where the comparables reside. There was absolutely no reasoning or explanation given for the reduction. I actually asked for a review on that basis and all they did was say that they stand by their initial appraisal. They didn't provide any explanation. As the buyer there was nothing else I could do.
I'm ready to start writing letters to newspapers and State representatives to see if I can get any traction. We live in a world full of data. There is no reason why such subjectivity should be included in this business. It was bad during the bubble, because appraisers would basically just inflate things to make sales happen, and now the overreaction is killing lots of potential deals.