StreetLinks LLC

It took almost two weeks to receive the appraisal after the visit of the appraiser. When we received it, we were quite shocked and disappointed at the poor quality of the work done for a number of reasons :  (1) the comparator properties used for valuation were all far away from our property. So they did not seem suitable. Since only small adjustments were made to the comparators, all of which were much lower in value, it pulled down substantially the value of our home according to the appraisal. (2) the per square foot cost factor used to assess the value of our home was almost 50% lower  than the one used in an appraisal we had had done only 18 months previously. As a result, the value of our house as a dwelling, came out at a little over a third of its insured value for replacement purposes! (3) the age of our house was misrepresented as almost 60 years - with no improvements - despite the fact that we had told the appraiser and shown him that we had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1988-93 to completely rebuild the house from top to bottom and add a sizable new addition (of about 1200 sq. ft.). 
As a result of the poor methodology used by the appraiser, our property came out valued almost 50% lower than a house four doors away from ours - even though that house had sold in mid-2010 (when market prices were softer), was smaller in lot size (by 70%) and smaller in living space (by over 10%), and was bout 13 years old - where ours is functionally about 18 years old - after reconstruction.
Fortunately, the size of our mortgage is small enough that the gross under-valuation of our property will not pose a serious problem to us in obtaining refinancing at a lower rate. 
However, the current system for getting real estate appraisals done for refinancing purposes is, from our experience, fraught with potentially serious risks and problems for homeowners:
(1) because neither the real estate broker nor the lender have any say in the selection of the appraiser, or in supervising the quality of the appraisal work done, the whole system is in effect an "orphan" with no-one taking responsibility for quality. 
(2) also for this reason, homeowners have effectively no recourse to correct even egregious errors of methodology by individual appraisers. 
(3) since no-one the homeowner can talk to has responsibility for appraiser selection, there is virtually zero accountability for the work performed, and no feedback system allowing homeowners to express their concerns and to get errors corrected. 
(4) this seems very dangerous indeed for the future of the housing market - which has already seen so much trouble in recent years. For it means that poor quality appraisals based upon very faulty methodologies can keep being done without being corrected. 
(5) The FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Administration) which oversees this process now is too remote and does absolutely nothing to ensure quality. A classic case of mission creep where a government agency has been given a crucial function, but has no capability to carry it out!
Based upon our quite appalling and disappointing experience, we would advise all homeowners to beware of real estate appraisers thrust upon them as part of the mortgage finance process today. Better to anticipate (potentially unpleasant) surprises, than fall into the situation we found ourselves in. Indeed, BUYER BEWARE ....CAVEAT EMPTOR!
PS : I should add, as background, that I have myself been an international banker for over 30 years. I have myself appraised and negotiated dozens of $10-500m loans, and therefore understand a lot about the appraisal process and methodologies.