I’ve been getting some pretty rotten appraisals lately. Some just flat out terrible. For instance, one property was appraised at $340,000. Problem? We thought it was worth at least $400,000. Was killing the deal. I reviewed the appraisal and saw where the appraiser had made a glaring mistake; the appraiser hit a “double whammy” on about $40,000 worth of adjustments. Don’t ask for specifics, just trust me on this one.
But I couldn’t call the appraiser. Actually I can if there’s a mistake on it but appraisers are too paranoid with the rule that they simply won’t take the call.
But my agent could call them, there’s no rule against that. So I called my agent and told them what happened. The agent called the appraiser and pointed out the errors and voila! A $55,000 adjustment! Not the $400,000 we were looking for but we got close enough we could still close the sale.
Agents, you know the market better than anyone. Don’t be shy about calling the appraiser before they go see the property.
