Appraised the wrong house

[Jeff Horton]

Yup, heard those horror stories before but now it has happened to me!!

Few months ago had a drive-by and hide order on a pre-foreclosure. Very rural area with mail boxes at the end of the private drive. 8-10 mailboxes all together. I spot my address in the row. Looked like a private road from there on. I wrote the lender stating that it appeared to be a private drive, etc. What now?

I don't remember what was said exactly but they wanted me to proceed as best as I could. I decided to go out and try to locate the house and just play dumb if anyone asked what I was doing. Had a good description of the house (so I thought) Found the only house that was close to the description and Shot a photo of the house. Problem was it was in the woods so there was little detail in the photo. I remember thinking the house looked to big for the state SF but none of the others were close.

Now I get the request to do a real appraisal today. Call the listing agent and as were talking she said "its a nice little mobile home." I said what??

To keep it short I appraised a house and it is actually a mobile home I was supposed to appraise. Pulled the order sheet and it is says SFR in the description. To me that means frame home, not a trailer.

I will write a letter to my firm that engaged me and explain what has happened and ask what they want to do. Will do that this weekend so meantime I would welcome any input. Man, never thought this would happen to me. And I knew I should have turned that job down when I saw that private drive!

BTW I am not paniced or overly concerned. It was an honest mistake and I was told it was a SFR which in my mind meant frame house. Just wish I had put a better statement of the problems I had in the appraisal now. Also really curious why someone at the loan company didnt question the Frame homes for comps and the fact that even though the photo is not good it is obviously not a MH in that photo.

 

[Dave Smith]

Jeff:



In my neck of the woods SFR is "Single Family Residence" :!:

Good luck with your situation. Meeting it head on is the best way and that sounds like what you are doing.

 

[Anonymous]

I got an order to appraise a house on a main street in a verry upscale community. I called and made he appointment and went to the house. The owner was not at home but the maid let me in and I inspected the entire house, measured it inside and out, took pictures etc. When I got back to the office I had a message from the owner asking why I hadn't showed up. I found out that the address on the order had been wrong and that the owner of the house I inspected was Thomas and the owner of the house I was supposed to appraise was named Thompson.

 

[Jeff Horton]

But I sent mine in and you didn't! :lol:

 

[Dee Dee]

Jeff,
Thank you very much.
You just made me feel much better about how my own lousy day is going. 8O

Dee Dee

 

[Jeff Horton]

BUT DEE DEE!! I wanted you to make me feel better. :lol:

 

[Farm Gal]

:lol: :lol:
I am sure that you had somewhere in what we used to call 'limiting conditions' (since it was a drive by in the good ol days gone by)

: based on county records and the clients insistance that this be performed despite the appraisers concern about properly identifying the property private road yada yada yada...

Oh you kinda glossed that part :twisted: too bad sooo sad! ( I'll be nice now)

You may want to check out Georges' post under "scope of work" for the 'subject to change if appraiser is made aware of conditions or situations differing from the assumtions delineated herein'... ...

Jeff I wouldn't stay awake nights over this matter: if you did more or less what you were supposed to do under the circumstances described, you have some recourse in case someone comes after you!

Now in terms of how to handle your former client, you may want to consider how close your relationship IS and if you even want to contact them. I see nothing in any of our certifications or USPAP or anywhere else that once the report is provided we are OBLIGATED to notify the client if we find an error or serious ommision. Good busines practice, perhaps, but obligation: no.

On a more serious note: exactly how much time has passed since report #1?
A week, I'd pick up the phone,
a month... lemme think on it,
a year? fergiddit.

Good luck, have a beer or beverage of your choice and arry on reading your scope v.e.r.y. carefully from now on

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

You should turn in your state certification or license immediately! How dare you make a mistake!

Seriously, the property does not sound like it was suitable for a drive-by appraisal in the first place. You have stumbled upon the main drawback of a drive-by appraisal. What if the home is not as it appears from the outside? What if there is no way to determine with type of home it is? Just call the client and explain the situation and beg forgiveness.

Personally, I will not perform a drive-by appraisal on any property in a rural setting (unless it a small platted addition and you can see the property), on acreage or in an area where it can not be seen from the street. You just helped me defend my reasons.

Don't worry, the last time I checked nobody is perfect and I bet you learned a valuable lesson. Heck, I lost a $60,000 a year client because I did not reference the 100 foot tall tower behind the property that I never noticed because I was in too big a hurry. You can bet i spot every tower within miles now.

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

I might have told this story before, at my age I can't remember what I said 5 minutes ago. Any way, a local realtor had a listing for a manufactured home with an address and an assessor's parcel number. That area is very uneven terrain, no house numbers, no road signs. I compare all listings to county records and couldn't get the listing to match up with anything. By that time the listing was posted as a pending sale. Finally had time to go talk to the realtor. They had gotten the info for the listing from the bank and part of a "Evaluation Report" (which is illegal in our mandatory state of Arizona) done illegally by another realtor (realtor's name was unknown). The loan had been based on the evaluation of a single wide manufactured home on the south side of the road. The county records showed a 1969 8' x 35' trailer as the only improvement on that parcel. The evaulation was based on a 1995 single wide manufactured home. So the new realtor with the REO listing went to the single wide home, rekeyed the door, removed all the furniture and possessions from inside the home and the site, marketed it and accepted an offer to purchase. When I asked her for more information and showed her what I had been able to find, she all of a sudden realized that the bank's original evaluation was on the wrong property, so they had repossessed and were selling the wrong home. The actual property that should have been "evaluated" was a site built octogan shaped earth home on the NORTh side of the road, which had not been picked up by the county assessor and that was the actual property that was being repossessed and needed to be sold to pay off the lien. So aren't you glad you are not that lender or original realtor or listing realtor??

 

[Dee Dee]

Okay....I'm with LeeAnn. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
There. I just handed out my last "make you feel better" card for the day, and you are the lucky reciever. :lol: