Thanks for everyone's responses but I think we are actually on a path to a resolution with this. There was some info missed in the appraisal that was not given credit during the process and it is being reevaluated. The house was originally evaluated and graded as builder grade against the comps so even the cost approach was way off. Also, he mistakenly (and admitted to it) did not take into account that we are right on the edge of the county border and they should have been considered for comps. Should have new answer today and hopefully it will be better.
Our world is a mystery to at least 30% to 90% of the appraisers that work in it. The root of the problem is very long ago the federal system concerned itself with borrowers somehow getting or having the power to manipulate real estate appraisers. So they focused on that and then left all lenders and mortgage originators with insane power over all real estate appraisers. When that didn't work out, a political dance over it next used a lot of smoke to make it look like something was done, only nothing was done other than destroy the businesses of mortgage brokers.
So all power was then with the lending institutions... Your friendly banks that caused the real estate crash. If appraisal reports were not "fine tuned" by the appraisers to fly past all the insane "rules" and "guidelines," without causing any red flags,..... the appraisers that failed to do such fine tuning, on anything other than a rare case, were all pretty much black listed off of the lending appraiser approval lists one way or the other. Even if they were "left on" the lists... but just never sent any appraisal orders.
Today, nothing has changed. The end result is a vast pool of real estate appraisers that seriously think that "fine tuning" their appraisal reports to fly through underwriting standards without raising any red flags is what is the sign of good real estate practices and quality appraising. They also know exactly what answers or things to "check" on the Fannie appraisal forms so they, as appraisers, can do the absolute smallest amount of work possible. There is no concern about credible values or industry ethics left for these appraisers. There is only concern for speed, profits, and how to work the system. This results in rushed and poorly researched appraisal reports.
The old timers here recognize this as "The Fraud of Licensing." The public thinks that when they get a report signed by a licensed or certified appraiser they have received something that is "THE" determination on their property. Many lending staff have the same thinking as well. lWhen in realty, in a very high percentage of the cases, all the public has is a great example of how the system has become gamed to make things look good without regard to what it might have taken to arrive at a credible value opinion on their real estate.
The entire problem is the guards of the hen house are all employed by the wolves, jackals, foxes, hyenas, and snakes. The farmer doesn't want responsibility and for some really mysterious reason claims it is the hens that can't be trusted. So the farmer always does whatever the weasels, the representatives for the predators, tells the farmer to do. The predators have other representatives, leeches, that work directly with the guards.
Keep all that in mind the next time you get charged $zzz by a predator's representative for a guard that gets paid half or less than that to guard your hen house for a predator.
