home appraisal issue (philadelphia)

[Mike Parks]

Hello BiggerPockets Pals, I have a little issue that I need some direction on and am hoping someone can shed some light on this. I am an investor in the Philadelphia and surrounding areas. I recently purchased a property in the southwest section of philadelphia and was recently approved for a line of credit increase based on the value of the mentioned property. Now before I bought the property I of course did what I thought was my due diligence to obtain a rough value on the property, I had my realtor pull comps, I had the wholesaler give me their take on the value of the property as well as checking zillow, trulia, etc. Although comps from my realtor were 12-24 months old (as its mainly a rental area) were anywhere from 18k (wholesale) to as high as 95k (retail) I thought wow this would be a good buy expecting and being told that arv would be roughly 75-85k. Now I only paid 18,500 for the house and it needed very minimal work IE: ceiling repairs, paint, flooring, some new lights, heat replacement, roughly 4k worth of work.

Since then the appraiser when out to the property last friday 12-19-14 to do the "appraisal" I was told that his cost would be $575 (which was extremely higher) than I typically pay and that his turnaround time was 10 days. The bank contacted me this past friday and said the appraisal came in and that the cost was $450 (weird) and that the property appraised for 30k. Shocked, I immediately expressed my displeasure with the number and wanted some answers. How could a house that has a tax assessment of over 50k, comps as high as 95k (within blocks away) only appraise for 30k??? This cant be right being as though I have 2 other smaller properties 0.7 miles away in a rougher neighborhood that appraised for 67k less than 6 months ago???? My guess would be that they did a "drive by appraisal" or "over the table" appraisal rather than a walk through appraisal which is what should have been done??

I do not have a copy of the appraisal in my possession yet but can anyone shed some light on this? My numbers are usually damn close and this particular property isnt even in the same zip code let alone same ballpark. They claim that the number was based on rents which range from 700-950 (mine rents for $850) and comps which are mainly wholesale numbers NOT retail numbers. I'm dumfounded so any suggestions or insight from appraisers or bankers would be greatly appreciated.