ROUTH REALTORS

This appraiser was contracted through a third party by a refi company. They basically did an appraisal, but he also ‘advised’ me not to do add ons or other enhancement to my home, but instead to buy ‘up’. On to the experience.First, he or the company that contracted him was dishonest. Market Evaluations actually hired him. They didn’t immediately set up a date with me and according to the mortgage broker, they lied and told him they had a date already, when in fact they called and set one up a few days after they were supposed to. He arrived late. He appeared to measure things correctly and took pictures. He has some just plain wrong measurements though. He seemed nice enough though. Here is the problem, his appraisal was about $25000 UNDER the tax assessed value and nearly $50000 less than an appraisal completed the previous year. He was just plain off. His valuation was $131,000 on a 2400 sq ft house. He did get 3 comps, none of which were valid comps (they were older, needed roofs, out of the city limits, didn’t’ have new flooring, new roofs, etc. unlike mine). I pulled a dozen comps from my tax assessor’s website that were comparable in size and age and it averaged out to $185,000 and 2200 sq/ft. When I pointed out all the problems on his report, he offered to withdraw his appraisal. He offered to ‘reevaluate it to increase it’. Come Monday he did a 180 and Market Evaluations are backing him so they can keep their money. If he put in a low appraisal, I would just quietly disagree and move on, but his work was grossly incompetent. He lied. More, he admitted he was wrong one day, then refused to do the right thing the next. I wouldn’t trust him or his company to do anything. Don’t risk allowing this man derail your appraisal. I wouldn’t trust him in anything as important as a home purchase.