Complaint against Mr. Appraiser

Here's an email I wrote to the appraisal company that did my last appraisal.  They pretty much did not give us credit for the fact that we are rebuilding the whole first floor.  I haven't sent the email yet, as I am worried that it'll do more harm than good at this point, so I'm putting it on my blog. Ha!  I just need to get it off my chest.

Dear Appraisal Company,

 

I recently had a home appraised by Mr. Appraiser and I feel that he not only gave us an unfair appraisal, but he grossly underestimated the value of our home by not taking the time to read our proposal and using appropriate comparables.

 

Mr. Appraiser not only provided a bad appraisal but he contradicted himself in his report and his re-evaluation:

 

1.  He said that adding two additional bedrooms does not make a difference, when clearly homes with additional bedrooms have sold for much higher in our neighborhood.  To not give us credit for the two additional bedrooms seems to be a complete subjective opinion. 

2.  He said that he couldn't find comps in our area so he went outside of our area, but when we gave him comps in our area, he said those are not useable because they are not in a comparable subdivision (although NONE of the comps he used were in the same subdivision nor the same school district).  The Simpson Elementary School district makes a huge difference, as it is the top elementary school in Gwinnett county and many families come to Peachtree Corners specifically to be in this school district.

3.  He said he used comps within the last six months but some of the comps are from last March when the housing market was very different. 

4.  He used comps with renovations such as a new kitchen counter or a new bathroom, when we are gutting out and rebuilding the whole first floor and replacing the whole outside of our home.

 

It's appalling to me that when we wanted our appraisal to get reviewed it went to the same guy.  In order for our appraisal to get seriously considered, Mr. Appraiser would have to be willing to admit that he was wrong, and obviously he is not willing to do that.  Therefore, this whole process lacks accountability and it's been a very frustrating process. 

 

I have a very hard time believing that re-building my house would continue to make it comparable to homes built nearly 30 years ago with an updated bathroom.  I also have a hard time believing that the home 8 houses down the street from me is not comparable to what our completed home will be when they have nearly the same square footage, number of bedrooms, and bathrooms.  It may have additional acres of land but then take out what the value of the land would be. Plus, it is one of the only custum built homes in the area and again it is less than 10 houses down from our home.  Again, why am I not getting the same credit as a new construction?  Having a brand new kitchen, master suite, great room, dining room, garage, porch, patio, foyer, staircase, guest room, siding, and windows with top of the line materials is NOT comparable to a newly built home?  

 

I would like to speak to Mr. Appraiser's supervisor or manager.  I understand that this may not change the final appraisal for my house but I would like to ensure that this does not happen to anyone else and that Mr. Appraiser is appropriately reported for his actions.

 

Shin Y. Kim

 

Interestingly a colleague of mine who recently got her home rebuilt had the opposite problem:

1.  The appraiser said land does not matter (whereas ours refused to use a comp down the streat because it has more land than our house).

2.  The appraiser said that their completely new construction from ground up is no different than homes that have renovated parts of their home (whereas ours said that we cannot use new construction for comps even though we are gutting out our whole first floor)

 

I hate this process.  So what's next?  We've been spending a lot of time in prayer.  Otherwise, I am letting our wonderful project manager help guide us.  Like I said--I hate this process.