Well, perhaps it is "splitting hairs", but the hair splitting has changed the GLA of my house from a high of 1748 sqft in 2009 to a recent low of 1614 sqft in 2012 with no modifications to the size of the house.
That's one awfully big hair. At $35/sqft it's $4690, ($35/sqft was the figure used on the latest appraisal when dealing with the comps).
Lay people "consumers" always wish to take all arguments regarding value outcomes to micro-managed debates over specific "quantified" (specific measured items times dollar amounts) things that work in their favor. Sure, saying or writing ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR SQUARE FEET sounds quite dramatic. However, considering what amounts to a 10' by 13.4' area that was really the result of a difference from measuring an entire house with rounding error thrown in..... not so dramatic. Send out five different appraisers, one gets five different measurement estimates the majority of the time.
What the public doesn't want to admit, whenever they don't get a value outcome that they wanted, is the public itself does not personally measure every square foot of house when they go house shopping. In fact, they don't do it before buying either. They go to homes of general size ranges and walk through them to get a feel of the overall utility of the floor plan layout. Location, site utility, floor plan utility, condition, and overall design appeal is where it is all at for the buying public, not specific square footage amounts. This last item of consideration generally only becomes a concern when people are wanting a specific value number hit in order to obtain some personal goal. I.E. a loan.
Now I don't think the most recent appraisal was done in the most professional manner and there is apparently no mechanism for complaint other than to run to the licensing board and say his opinion stinks. Like that's going to do anything.
That doesn't do anything because to be successful with a state appraisal board one does not complain about the "opinion." What one complains about is the methodology. In appraiser lingo that is called "development." If the opinion arrived at cannot be comprehended by reading the report, then the issue in our lingo is called "reporting."
In any public consumer's favor, well over 50% of appraisers cannot create comprehensible reports even if their licenses and certifications depend on it, which they do. That said however, in defense of my trade, the recent demands by Fannie and other large GSEs that require all of this "Q2" and "C4" nonsense has done nothing more than empower more appraisers to produce more, for the public, incomprehensible reports with an excuse for having done so.
I would like to know the "right" way to measure this house so I can educate the next appraiser on how to correctly form his opinion and back up my "opinion" with concrete reasons for that opinion. I shouldn't have to do this as a homeowner but given my experiences so far I feel this is the only way to defend myself from "less than informed" opinions by licensed but woefully undereducated or inexperienced persons who show up at my door.
LOL! Wow, really bad plan. I appreciate the rant very highly however, I want you to know that. The type of appraiser you describe above will smile at you and then go do what it was they were going to do anyway. The appraisers you want to come to your door will either do the same exact thing or hand you your head on a platter for trying to "educate" them. Some of this latter group may even call your lender and withdraw from the assignment because you attempted in influence their opinion of value to that degree.
The only reason I care about the opinion is that it affects the value which the lenders translate into REAL yes or no answers on a loan. Because of an opinion, my lender will either sink this loan or charge me hundreds of dollars in PMI a month.
We know this. Really, you have to consider the crowd your posting to. This is all we hear about during our entire careers as appraisers. Seriously, we know what you all care about, and it is not our opinions or our reports.
And if that opinion is crap, I as a homeowner get absolutely NO RECOURSE other than to fill out a strongly worded complaint complete with comps, so someone in a state office can say, "aww, ain't that cute". If the appraiser gets a bunch more of these he might get a talking to. OOHHHHHHH.
See above. Yes, we know. Every borrower that ends up having to pay PMI, or not getting a loan due to an appraisal outcome, it was due to a "crap" opinion. We are used to everyone having an opinion about our opinions.
Meanwhile I'm out $495 for running across someone who can't be bothered to measure a house in a semi coherent fashion to form his GLA opinion, and picks comps on the same street so he doesn't have to drive 5 miles to take a picture of a more appropriate comp (Screw the homeowner, gas costs money). THANKS STREETLINKS.
Remember I mentioned "Location" first in a list above? You're not going to win by attempting to convince lenders or appraisers that going greater distances results in more credible value indicators. During the "Boom" a great deal of those appraisers you describe above did just that in order to hit the right numbers so loans would happen for their mortgage broker clients. Today many of those appraisers are getting, or going to get, sued due to it. And sued by the very same entities that looked the other way while it was being done because they wanted their loan pipelines kept full.
I'm open to suggestions on what to tell my state representative on how to fix this problem. Better licensing? Outlaw appraisal aggregation mills or AMC's? Create a dispute mechanism? Get rid of the appraisal requirement for a no money out refi? Got a suggestion? Let me hear your ideas.
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