Appraiser didn't measure the property

[Kelly N.]

Hi all,

We are currently under contract to purchase a 4 unit home, and we measured the building and found that it was not as large as the City property records state.  We got the seller to lower the price (a little) and it makes money at that price.  We were under the impression that the appraiser would actually measure the building as well (we recently had refinanced another property, and that appraiser measured the house), but she didn't.  

There is a floor plan with some dimensions on it in the appraisal, plus a list of area calculations that conveniently add up to what the City has stated for square footage, but most dimensions are off by 3-5 feet, so for the two story house we are talking about a difference of 688 sq ft- they are saying it is 2770 sq ft, we calculated 2084 sq ft.  The City states that it has a 1086 sq ft basement (we got 1087 from our measurements), and the square footage of the entire foundation is 1165 according to the City and 1209 sq ft according to our measurements (a 3.8% difference).  Even if the first and second floors had the same footprint (they don't), the building couldn't be larger than twice the foundation size, or 2418 sq ft.

We still want to move forward since the property makes money at the price we had agreed on, but I was wondering if there was anything that could (or should) be done to follow up with the appraiser on why she didn't actually do her job.  I would think the lender would have an issue with them not actually measuring the property, especially when the numbers the City states already don't add up.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or experiences with similar issues.

Thanks,

Kelly