Professional Appraisal Group

Our Mortgage Company used ValuTrust Solutions as a 3rd party to select an appraiser. They selected the Professional Appraisal Group, Inc (449-B Kingsley Ave, Orange Park, FL) to do our appraisal and the appraiser was Tesha Latone Butler. Our mortgage broker indicated the request was for an appraiser with 5 years experience in the area. We have no way to know if Ms. Butler had that experience, but we are questioning her appraisal. There are some factual issues. My appraisal in June 2009 listed sqft as 3452 and my builder listed the house at 3450. Ms. Butler listed number of baths as 3.1 and it should be 3.5(as we have commode and sink as a ½ bath) and more importantly, listed our square footage as 3185. The discrepancy is not huge but an indication as to the attention to detail and consideration by the appraiser. Also, properties compared to our property are in lower priced sections of our development where upgrades do not hold a candle to those our home has. Our house is the second biggest lot available in development and backs to a conservation area where no one will ever build. The lot across the street (4071 Eagle Landing Parkway) is listed for 114900 which is 34% of the value Ms. Butler placed for our home and lot. We had a list of upgrades that total approximately $60,000. We wouldn't expect to get dollar to dollar credit, but we did have an expectation to get some consideration. We bought our house June 2009 and Ms. Butler's appraisal was almost 40% less in value after 4 years which cannot be substantiated by looking at resales in this development. According to our mortgage broker, he tried to get reconsideration but "they would not budge". I submitted other homes that were close to the same type quality home but they wouldn't consider them because they had more square footage. Run, don't walk away from this appraisal group if you have a choice as they do not give you a fair appraisal.