Blue Edge Inc

Mr. Chris Baldwin of Blue Edge Appraisal of Elgin IL. did an appraisal my home. Initially, and as a clear indication as to the work that this firm produces, the dimensions on my home are not only incorrect, they are grossly in error. The dimensions of the second floor are also incorrect, and not by just a few feet. Mr. Baldwin shows the dimensions to be 20x34. Within this space he goes on to show that there are 4 bedrooms and two full bathrooms. It should also be noted that Mr. Baldwin shows the both the first and second floors to have the same length. The entire document is suspect. There are also three walk in bay windows/doors in the floor plan of my home that are not depicted in my appraisal. These are expensive upgrades that need to be included. The correct dimensions of my home including these bays bring the square footage of my home to roughly 2400 square feet.The next issue I bring forward is the comparable sales. The first comparable Mr. Baldwin used is not even in my neighborhood. He probably needed to do this because there are no homes in my neighborhood as small as what he originally showed my home to be. The neighborhood this first comparable resides in is in an area of much smaller homes,of cheaper construction, not comparable to my neighborhood of semi custom homes.(Please note that while my address is on Pontiac, the comparable sales which I will refer to later in this letter have Crestview address. Pontiac changes to Crestview 2 doors down from me, but are the same street)The second comparable is also under 2100 square feet and also not in my immediate neighborhood.The last home Mr. Baldwin used as a comparable is in my neighborhood, on Winnebago St, although not on my street and is about 200 square feet smaller than the actual square footage of my home, yet appraises higher than mine does. Additionally it does not have a finished basement, and mine is finished. This just does not add up.There are two homes on my street that have sold in the last 6 months. They are at 1100 Crestview and 1120 Crestview. I do not have square footage information on the first of these two homes, but it is similar is size and sits across the street from my home. It sold for $345,000 in April of this year. The second home is four doors down and across the street and sold in May of this year for $370,000. This home is listed at 2900 square feet, but included in that is an attached sun room. It should also be noted that my lot is 13,900 Sq ft as reported by the assessor, and this home I speak of is on a lot that is 10,400, about 30% smaller. While the house is slightly larger that my home, this is certainly a closer comparable. I would imagine Mr. Baldwin could not use this home as a comparable because as originally reported in the appraisal, my home was 800 square feet smaller.Finally, my dispute hinges on the answer I got from Nations Valuations Service when I called to speak about this poor work by Blue Edge Appraisal. I was told that regardless of the corrected square footage, it still fell into some "range", whatever that means, and that for this reason, the $270,000 is accurate regardless of the additional 300 plus square feet that were not in the original report. This is ludicrous. For all of the reason I cited above, I am disputing this appraisal not only with you, but with my credit card company as well. I refuse to pay for such careless work, and I absolutely do not agree that 300 additional square feet mean nothing. I contend that if the correct square footage were used from the outset, more accurate comparable properties would have been used and the final number would have been something considerably higher than $270,000. Using the sale at 1120 Crestview, which sold for 370,000 ($127per sqft) and applying that same amount per square foot to my property, My appraisal should be at roughly $300,000. I am looking for a refund. I also found out that in 2001 Mr. Baldwin was fined for doing an appraisal the same sloppy, unprofessional way.