question about drive by appraisals

[CANative]

Hi Trinity,

It's apparent that you understand the inherent weakness in the "exterior only" appraisal. You fear the "good stuff" about your property will not be observed and the opinion of value may be low. Other's hope the "bad stuff" will be missed and the opinion of value will be high.

Tell your loan rep that you would be more comfortable with a an appraisal based on an interior and exterior inspection by a local, certified appraiser and that you are willing to pay the additional costs, if any.

 

[trinity033007]

just to let everyone know....appraisal came back at 330K, so we are fine with loan to value...and we are in the process of getting paperwork done for closing...thank you everyone for your input!!!

 

[GENTEEL]

?? given what information??????:mellow:

Upgrades, improvements, problems, etc. other than externalitites.

 

[GENTEEL]

Trinity, It is my humble opinion that no appraiser should do an "Exterior Only" appraisal when access to the home is available. That said, it sounds as though you would have no problem granting access to your home for an appraisal given your concerns.

Your initial question was how accurate are Exterior (Drive-by) appraisals.

I personally tend to agree with you here. Inspection/Observation of the entire property must become a mandatory condition unless substantial support and data is given to justify a drive-by which often can become misleading and inaccurate. I am also of the opinion that measurements and sketches be eliminated when no improvements/additions to the structure are noted. A borrower refinanced his home three times within five years having no changes to the property other than maintaining and keeping it clean. I don't see any point in measuring and sketching the entire structure over and over again in such cases, unless structural amendments were noticed, called for and proven (permits). An observation and contractual documents should reveal other necessary interior/exterior changes such as upgrades, lawn improvements, fencing, etc.

 

[JeneeBee]

I work for one of the Biggie Lenders (pick a "W") and there are times we do "drive by" appraisals. However, this is only done if we have either a current fee report or we already hold the loan so we have old reports where interior inpsections were made. There is no way we would do a drive by unless we had information about the property. A borrower can always request an interior inspection especially if any changes have been made to the property in the past 12 months.