Appraiser refusing to communicate with our realtor, anything we can do?

[LifeIsGood01]

Originally Posted by jojow

I'm confused as to why it is the buyer's agent's responsibility to have the electric and water turned own. That should be the seller's responsibility or their agent.

I hope you are successful is getting another appraisal.

Exactly, How could a buyer have the electric and water turned on besides flipping a switch on a breaker or turning the knob to run the water if it's off. They don't' have an account yet with the water or electric company so there is no way for them to turn on/connect the service.

[MikeJaquish]

Is this a bank-owned foreclosure property?

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

Frankly this is utterly absurd. Your agent should be MEETING THE APPRAISER at the property at a specific agreed upon time and providing her with comparable sales and listings and other information about the house and the transaction as needed. She should be making sure the house is on, warm, well lit, basically staged as if it were being shown! I don't care if its 6 hours away. Letting the appraiser go alone to a house that is closed most of the time is incompetent. Your interests are not being represented correctly. In fact they are being sabotaged. You don't give the appraiser instructions on how to turn on a circuit breaker. She is not going to risk starting a fire in a property - she has no knowledge as to the condition of the electrical system. You GO THERE and MAKE SURE THE THING GOES SMOOTHLY! That's why she is getting 1.5% of the selling price! This drives me crazy, and I am both an appraiser and an agent so I know what the roles are.

This surprised me. The last time we bought a house (admittedly a few years ago) The selling agent asked our agent to be at the house to 'assist' the appraiser in determining a 'good value' Our agent (very well known in the area and one of the ones that would sit on arbitration boards) looked over at the selling agent and said 'Jack you know full well that could only hurt the value. I don't know what you are worried about.' She later told us that most appraisers in our area would not evaluate a property if either agent or the buyer were present. There were a lot of agents moving into our ex-urb area from the Nearby major Metro area who would show up with binders of comps and manufacturers 'expected remaining life of mechanical systems' documents. One appraiser was known to thank the agent for the document then take a dozen pages out of it twist them into a candle and light them to see if the fireplace flue drew well. He would then tell them to 'Get the Hell off the property and let him do his job'

Maybe the concept of the independent appraisal went out the window during the real estate bubble that burst a few years back

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by MidValleyDad

This surprised me. The last time we bought a house (admittedly a few years ago) The selling agent asked our agent to be at the house to 'assist' the appraiser in determining a 'good value' Our agent (very well known in the area and one of the ones that would sit on arbitration boards) looked over at the selling agent and said 'Jack you know full well that could only hurt the value. I don't know what you are worried about.' She later told us that most appraisers in our area would not evaluate a property if either agent or the buyer were present. There were a lot of agents moving into our ex-urb area from the Nearby major Metro area who would show up with binders of comps and manufacturers 'expected remaining life of mechanical systems' documents. One appraiser was known to thank the agent for the document then take a dozen pages out of it twist them into a candle and light them to see if the fireplace flue drew well. He would then tell them to 'Get the Hell off the property and let him do his job'

Maybe the concept of the independent appraisal went out the window during the real estate bubble that burst a few years back

No, you just tripped over some BS.
I would not go to an appraisal as the independence of the appraiser is paramount. I don't want to be perceived as a jerk or a crook, and interfering with an appraiser is a good way to earn that perception.

IF the appraiser asks for access or information, however, I turn myself inside out to deliver. I have driven to appraisal offices to drop files when asked for information.

A current post asks who has it better, agents or loan officers.
Dang sure, I wouldn't want to be an appraiser. Talk about having abuse heaped on you.

[MidValleyDad]

Mike - I agree with your view of the importance of an independent appraisal. I think the problem we were seeing in this area during 'the bubble' was agents trying to influence appraisers and getting away with it because of the lack of experience of the appraisers as the market grew.

When my son bought a house a couple years back the appraiser had only been doing real estate for six months. Before that he was an appraiser for an auto insurance company (deciding whether to total a wreck or not). He was working for a firm with its own training program that sent the junior people out on anything under $750,000. (The suburb of DC where he is has a very high median house price :-))

Honest appraisers will always be subject to abuse. No one wants to think think that their house isn't in the top 10% of the market :-) Maybe I'm strange but I prefer getting an unbiased opinion of the value before I sign documents that will tie me to that value for the nest 15-20 years.