Need Some Help Appealing an Appraisal

[Stephanie Medellin]

I recently had an appraisal come back way under what I believe is the current market value.  I am very familiar with this neighborhood and know that this home would sell for more if it was listed for sale tomorrow.

I proceeded to appeal the appraisal and back it up with lots of documentation, but did not have success in getting anything changed.  I still want to pursue this, but I have a few questions.

My questions:

1. Isn't the appraiser supposed to drive by comps and take recent photos? Isn't this part of evaluating the comparable sales? Can they get in trouble for not doing so, and pulling photos off the MLS? He did not appear to have driven by the comps because the photos used in the appraisal were the same photos that were on the MLS (same flowers on the bushes, same sky, same exact brown spots on the grass).

2. When there is a different bedroom and bathroom count on the MLS vs. public records, which are they permitted to use for appraisal purposes? (I've always thought that they couldn't give value to unpermitted additions.)

3.  I've seen other appraisals where a short sale was used as a comp, and it was indicated that it was a short sale, not an arms length transaction.  This appraiser called a short sale an arms length transaction.  He did not address this in his response to my appeal.  What is correct?

I would appreciate any input as well as advice for how to proceed to get this appraisal corrected.

[Stephanie Medellin]

@Wayne Brooks As far as the permitted space goes, let me give you an example and hopefully you can elaborate a little more. I'm looking at other sold comps that have 2 beds / 1 bath on the property profile on my title website. Let's say the house has 1000 square feet. On the MLS, this property has been sold twice recently. Once as a short sale with 2 beds/1 bath, square footage of 1000 feet. Then it gets purchased, renovated, and resold as a 3 bedroom/2 bath, also with 1000 square feet.

I have seen plently of these flips where there are unpermitted additions that still look like additions after the renovation, but when they are listed on the MLS they add the additional bedroom or bathroom without changing the square footage.

So as I am looking up additional comps to use, some of the 2 bed/1 bath properties came up because on title that's what they are. However when I go to the MLS, the listings say they have a larger bed/bath count. The appraiser wouldn't use these comps because they have a higher bed and bath count, even though I doubt those additions were permitted.

Obviously it's better to find comps with the same bed and bath count, which I did.  They were more recent and closer to the subject property.  I also added some additional comps that had the issue I described above.

@Wayne Brooks