Disputing house appraisal..

[niccig]

Trying to refi. The appraisal came back $10K less than we need. BUT, the appraiser had our square footage at 150 sq ft less than what the county and 2 previous appraisals (2004 and 2012) have it at. The other 3 appraisals are all within 8 sq ft of each other. DH is going to call appraiser tomorrow and ask to recalculate appraisal. Worried, guy will say that he's right on square footage and the other 3 are wrong. Any advice on how to get a revision?!

[Reader]

We had an appraiser come from another county to do an appraisal and he was way off, didn't even look at comps. Our lender called him and challenged him. Appraisal went to an acceptable level for refi. Maybe get the lender involved?

[niccig]

We had an appraiser come from another county to do an appraisal and he was way off, didn't even look at comps. Our lender called him and challenged him. Appraisal went to an acceptable level for refi. Maybe get the lender involved?

DH will talk to our broker tomorrow as well. She did say that legally she is no longer allowed to talk to the appraiser, so not sure if any help there. DH is going to call the guy and nicely ask to rerun appraisal with different square footage/recheck his calculations as 3 other appraisers have it at different size. Coincidentally, one of the comps is at that exact size, so thinking/hoping its a mistake.

[WatchingThemGrow]

I just had a similar experience trying to get a HELoC. The banker we were going through was trying to find a new job and left this week, but maybe I should pursue this just as your DH will...and make contact with the new banker....and ask the out of state appraiser why they didn't use recent sales of other 3000sf home on our adjacent street as comps!!

How frustrating for you! Let us know what works out with your DH!


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[jenmcadams]

I've heard that appraisals are hard to contest these days, but if they make a mistake, your lender will normally order a new one. We had an appraiser come in super low on our house and we realized he missed a bathroom - the second appraiser apparently loved our neighborhood and appraised us far higher than I think we were worth, but we were just doing a refi (not even a HELOC), so as long as it cleared a certain threshold, we were happy

[MSWR0319]

We had a similar situation a few years ago when we re-financed. The appraisal came in about $15k short but the comps she used were no where near decent comps. They were from another county and we knew of two properties that were much better comps within 3 miles of our house. We couldn't do anything about her appraisal, but the bank did agree with us and allowed us to pay for another appraisal. I think it was $150. This one came back about $3k more than we needed. In your situation, with the square footage being off, I would push hard that the appraiser explain why the footage is different. If that doesn't work, I'd definitely get the lender involved if possible.

[vonfirmath]

DH will talk to our broker tomorrow as well. She did say that legally she is no longer allowed to talk to the appraiser, so not sure if any help there. DH is going to call the guy and nicely ask to rerun appraisal with different square footage/recheck his calculations as 3 other appraisers have it at different size. Coincidentally, one of the comps is at that exact size, so thinking/hoping its a mistake.

You're in CA. Searchlight Crusade has talked about that. LEgally they can't talk anymore. :(

[niccig]

You're in CA. Searchlight Crusade has talked about that. LEgally they can't talk anymore. :(

They can't talk. Broker told DH to call the guy and ask to recalculate square footage. If he won't, she said they could ask the underwriter for a new appraisal based on his square footage being very different to the country assessor's and 2 other appraisers. So hopefully it either gets revised or we get a 2nd appraisal.