ComplaintsforThe Appraisal Store

• Initial Complaint

  05/20/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 11/30/21. ******** ****** performed and appraisal on a property that I had made an offer on: ***** Oak ***** Dr. *******, CA *****. The offer was for $576. In a competitive market, my realtor advised me that a no contingency offer would be taken most seriously. Both my lender and my realtor advised that the offer was strong and appropriate considering the current market and value it was assessed to be. Ms. ****** had many comparable homes to include in her appraisal, but intentionally chose to focus on lower value properties. Of the more than 15 appropriate properties Ms. ******* selected 6 properties to include in her report, 4 of which were low value properties and one had yet to be sold which is currently pending for $45K more than she listed the value at six months ago. Had Ms. ******* included more appropriate properties, applying the same formulas she did in her appraisal to account for adjustments, ***** Oak ***** Dr. *******, CA ***** should have appraised for somewhere between $575K - $585K. On February 26, 2022, I wrote Ms. ****** an email advising her that I was filing a formal complaint against her with the CA Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers listing out exactly how her appraisal was conducted in bad faith and or incompetently. Her response, routed through Celebrity Home Loans LLC Appraisal Shield, was unacceptably subjective, conclusory, and not supported by common sense. I responded to her email on March 4, 2022 outlining exactly how her explanations were objectively unreasonable and unsupported by common sense. Ms. ****** has not responded to my March 4 email. Because of the bad faith and or incompetent appraisal, I was forced to produce $19K extra at closing or pay PMI, which has costed me and will continue to cost me hundreds of dollars.

  Business response

  06/02/2022

  Dear ****** *******,

   

  I received your email regarding the complaint Mr. ***** filed against my business. In the email he provided, I explained my reasoning as to why the sales he provided were not better than the comparable sales utilized in the report. His comment stating: “how her appraisal was conducted in bad faith and or incompetently” is a completely false accusation and defamatory.  I have been an appraiser for 22 years with no complaints filed through the state or from any of my clients including Celebrity Home Loans who refer to me as one of their best appraisers and agreed with my report. Please feel free to contact me with any updates on this matter or if you have any questions.

   

   

  Best Regards,

   

  ******** ******

  Certified Appraiser

  Customer response

  06/02/2022

   I am rejecting this response because: it is conclusory without material support. Her prior response was, and remains, objectively inconsistent with and incompatible with common sense. I have previously identified specific homes she purposefully chose to ignore that are comparable in many ways. These homes are also within the permissible boundaries of comparable homes based on general appraising principles in the industry. Since her prior communication, she has failed to adequately address why her own rebuttal contains inconsistencies and contradictions.  Just because she says she has been in business for 22 years does not automatically make her competent. It is entirely possible she has never been challenged over an incompetent appraisal because it did not negatively impact the buyer or seller. Ms. ******* has failed to respond to my rebuttal and I would like her to explain in writing how and why my comments on her conclusory positions are incorrect and not supported by general principles of appraising. This will also facilitate the formal complaint that has been filed with the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers regarding this incident. 
  
  Kris

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