@Joe Splitrock Thanks for your comments. So what I may have failed to get across is that these duplexes are all on the national historic registry. They have a particular kind of uniqueness to them for buildings that were built in 1890. These were completely rehabbed a few years back. By rehab I mean they were gutted. Everything in them was new, from electric and plumbing, to items as small as nails. Literally everything new inside. I'd say one problem here is that the appraiser didn't understand what had been done to the building, or the area where it exists. That was probably my agents fault. Nonetheless, I think the appraier approached the duplexes as boxes, a certain size, etc etc. Condition I don't think he really considered, because as you know he was not inside the comps, just my property. All of the comps were older buildings, they just had not been rehabbed other than perhaps superficial stuff like paint. Perhaps you know that old buildings many times have the old knob and tube wiring. And then there was the issue of the area. None of his comps were in the same zip code. This is an urban area. 5.5 miles can be the difference between night and day.
Let me give you an example though. We also sold a duplex right next to the subject property. The buyer was represented by her agent, but we did not have a listing agent on that one. So it is not in the comps at this time. We sold that property to her for $134K. The reason was it needed significant rehab. I estimated perhaps $70K. The buyer estimated $90K. It was appraised, yesterday the results came in. I don't have the price, but it appraised. So we're now in the peculiar position of have a property in need of significant rehab, appraised for $10K more, sitting next to a property that has been fully rehabbed.
The comps in the low appraisal were all out of the area, all varying distances from the subject property. He had 6 comps. Several were over 5 miles away. He had a few that were 3-5 miles. The areas though are significantly different, again, urban areas are that way. And again, he should have used the pending sales on the street according to other appraisers I have spoken with. Are they complete? No. But they are more or less exact comps, in the exact area. They have been inspected. The buyers have been approved. We're waiting for appraisals on them. One of them though is an FHA loan, so it may be that that appraiser will see the first appraisal. There is one conventional loan that may not see that, so we could get a fresh appraisal.
Either way, I agree with your conclusion. I think it's an uphill battle. As I mentioned prior in the thread, we have a rebuttal in to the appraisal. The rebuttal was signed off on by the buyer. The rebuttal was reviewed by the lender, who agreed with us, and have forwarded it to an the appraisal company that hired this particular appraiser. It will be reviewed. We'll see how that comes out.
