Just learned VA Appraiser never came to house!

[heathpack]

VA appraisers are assigned on a rotational basis and the assigned appraiser MUST personally inspect the subject and comparable properties.

IF the assigned VA appraiser did not personally inspect the subject, that is a major problem and should be reported the VA regional loan center. The appraiser could very well be removed from the panel.

HOWEVER, at this point, all we know is that someone, who may not be the assigned appraiser, visited the property. What we don't know is if the person who visited the property was even at the property for the appraisal purposes. Was a home inspection performed? It is not uncommon for an appraiser to visit a property to be told that another appraiser has already been at the property. Further inquiry generally revealed that the other person was a home inspector or a surveyor or someone else.

Was the home on a lock box and might the appraiser have used his lock box key to enter the property? Sometimes a combo box is placed on a property. Agents have been known to place combos and gate codes in non-public portions of listings. I routinely used a lock box key to access a vacant property, often without notifying the agent that I would be doing so. I would leave a business card at the property, although there were probably occasions I forgot to do so. I might call the agent, who might be unavailable, whereupon I would advise the person answering who I was and what I was doing and ask if there was someone else to help me. Sometimes the duty agent/receptionist/whoever I was talking to COULD give me the information I needed and the agent might never be aware when and if I had been to the property.

There are too many unknowns right now to throw darts at the appraiser. However, if it can be definitely ascertained that the assigned appraiser had someone else inspect the property in his place, yes, that is a problem and it needs to be reported to VA.

Inspection was done on a separate date. We were personally in the house for that so we know the difference.

There is a lock box on the house. But Mr. X came to the house and was met by our realtor. Mr. X is indeed a licensed real estate appraiser in our state, as is Mr. Z. I suppose it is remotely possible that Mr. X, an appraiser, came to the house but then did not write an appraisal. Then on a separate occasion unbeknownst to us Mr. Z came to the house and did write an appraisal-- the only party that could have organized this is the seller or his agent. There has been such a brouhaha over the apprasied value, however, that it seems unlikely the seller would not have mentioned this if it had happened.

It does not seem to me that there are really that many unknowns here.

But again, I definately hear what everybody is saying. Be reasonable and fair and be sure of our facts. Thanks for eveybody's willingness to help us see the other possible explanations for what is going on.

H

 

[heathpack]

Mr. X not a VA-approved appraiser

Ok, so I talked to the VA.

Mr. X (who came to the house) is not a VA-approved appraiser.

Mr. Z (who wrote the report) is a VA-approved appraiser.

H

 

[heathpack]

Talked to lawyer and here's what he said.

... This whole scenario is very strange indeed. He agrees with those of you that state we are not injured by the appraisal, as we are now able to buy the house for a slightly lower price. Buyer is the most injured, as he accepted lower price based on the appraisal. VA is the next most injured party, as they have their appraiser standards for good reason.

His opinion is that we must make this right with sellers and VA now. If we just let it close, we have no recourse because we are complicit in allowing the fraudlent appraisal to stand. Sellers would be in their rights to sue us for the difference between the original sales price and the renegotiated price. He is also not sure about the validity of the entire loan. He feels it is better to lose the house now should it come to that than to have any possible legal issues down the road (as much as he would appreciate the future business).

So we will tell lender that he must fix this. Maybe it will be adequate to just tell the appraiser that he must physically come out and appraise the house when he is back in town. We will have our realtor let their realtor know what's going on and make sure that they never organized Mr. Z to come out to appraise the house without our knowledge.

I will likely report this whole thing to the Office of Real Estate Appraisers (the state licensing board here in California) but have not completely decided.

Thanks for everybody's input. The time you all took to respond is really appreciated.

H

 

[rcsone]

....the attempts at enforcement by the California Board are restricted almost to persecution of those who have an appraisal designation who have not paid their child support.........and these are toward the most minor of numbers considering the size of the state's market.........you should expect nothing from them........my continuing experience with VA is that they shoot straight but are slow on the draw which is comforting to those that legitimately always work with them.....best to all.....rs

 

[Ken B]

I would be curious if the the effective date of the appraisal, which would be the same date as the inspection date, is the same as the date that (X) met with the agent at the property. If those dates are the same, there is smoke and there may be a fire. If the dates are different, there is greater uncertainty about the situation.

 

[Karl]

This happens continuously here in AZ , easy to prove, but no one actually cares.


Simple question: How many Trainess, newly licensed, on this Forum have done a VA Appraisal??

 

[heathpack]

....the attempts at enforcement by the California Board are restricted almost to persecution of those who have an appraisal designation who have not paid their child support.........and these are toward the most minor of numbers considering the size of the state's market.........you should expect nothing from them........my continuing experience with VA is that they shoot straight but are slow on the draw which is comforting to those that legitimately always work with them.....best to all.....rs

...interesting. I have talked (anonomously) to the OREA and they called me back right away and urged me to report this. Good to know that they may want the report but then do nothing about it!

I had a similar (but much more comical) conversation with a very nice lady at the VA. She so much wanted to help me out but I wouldn't give her any details except asking her to verify the VA status of the appraiser's involved. She asked and re-asked and really suggested if something is wrong with our appraisal to just tell her about it, she was there to help. It was really sweet-- I felt like I was troubled teen talking to my Mom.

H

 

[heathpack]

I would be curious if the the effective date of the appraisal, which would be the same date as the inspection date, is the same as the date that (X) met with the agent at the property. If those dates are the same, there is smoke and there may be a fire. If the dates are different, there is greater uncertainty about the situation.

No, the home inspection was performed on May 25 (we were there, met with inspectors and went through all the details of the report on the spot, spent 3 hours with them). The appraisal was performed on June 2 (our realtor was there). The appraisal report was generated on June 9. We are honestly not confused about who is who.

We now do have a copy of the appraisal report, by the way. There are some minor factual errors, but the biggest problem we have with it is the appraiser used as comps short sales that closed in the Feb timeframe rather than recent sales in same neighborhood that closed within a week of our appraisal as regular sales. I know someone commented previously that the apprasier gets to pick the comps. Why would he pick comps that are much less reflective of the house we are buying now vs a short sale we might have been buying 5-6 months ago? Is this accepted practice?

H

H

 

[Victoria]

....the attempts at enforcement by the California Board are restricted almost to persecution of those who have an appraisal designation who have not paid their child support.........and these are toward the most minor of numbers considering the size of the state's market.........you should expect nothing from them........my continuing experience with VA is that they shoot straight but are slow on the draw which is comforting to those that legitimately always work with them.....best to all.....rs

This is not true. While the CA OREA has suspended numerous licenses because of failure to pay child support they also take seriously and investigate numerous other complaints. You can read for yourself the licenses which have been suspended at www.orea.ca.gov

If you do find out for fact the inspecting appraiser was not VA then I hope you do file a complaint.

 

[heathpack]

I would be curious if the the effective date of the appraisal, which would be the same date as the inspection date, is the same as the date that (X) met with the agent at the property. If those dates are the same, there is smoke and there may be a fire. If the dates are different, there is greater uncertainty about the situation.

Wait I misunderstood your question. You were asking about the inspection date for the appraisal vs. the report date.

The inspection date was 6/2/09, the date the realtor met Mr. X at the property.

The report date was 6/9/09, the date Mr. Z signed the report.

H