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We did the math and, judging by the price/sq foot he listed, it would have appraised at the exact price we need if the 50 sq feet he missed had been included. There's probably more to it than that, but is there any hope in thinking so?
We've filed a formal complaint and are hoping to mend the situation. Has anyone ever dealt with this before? Our realtor said this is only the second time it's happened to her in 20 years. All of this happened at the end of the week so we've had to stew about it all weekend.
With all the fresh interest in homebuying and new vets home and taking advantage of the VA loans, the appraisers are very busy it seems. That may be why we're seeing among friends and me errors when years could go without seeing an error.
One error that effected the purchaser ...the purchaser had the name and email address of his appraiser and when the appraisal missed several things the purchaser actually sent him photos of the problems he missed. The appraiser was contrite, went back out and addressed these items.
I would guess that the appraiser's square footage is more accurate than the HOA's previous number. Appraisers should measure a place. Even with that, different appraisers can come up with slightly different numbers.
Q1: Is this a multi-story floorplan? If so, is the space under the staircase being used as a closet or other accessible storage? If NO, that area is not considered part of the Gross Living Area and not included in the reportable square footage of the home.
Q2: Do you have any "open to below" areas, e.g., a balcony from the second floor overlooking an area of the first floor? If YES, that open area is not considered part of the Gross Living Area and not included in the reportable square footage of the home.
The above is per ANSI standards.
EDIT: Also, I've seen where HOAs have reported living space to include the interior walls. Condos are measured using the interior dimensions which does NOT include the interior walls.
We did the math and, judging by the price/sq foot he listed, it would have appraised at the exact price we need if the 50 sq feet he missed had been included.
Not sure why you think that. Appraisals are not based on sqft. Its only a single item in a long list of items.
Appraisers these days seem to be a bunch of bozos.
I had an appraisal done on a townhouse that I wanted a refi on.
My GFE (good faith estimate) had me set for a 30 year fixed rate under 4.0%
The idiot appraised the unit as a condo and not a townhouse.
I was never mailed a copy of the appraisal and had to fight to get one emailed to me.
Turns out there are more flood restrictions on a condo than a townhouse, where I live.
The bank drew the whole process out for almost a month and a half and at the last minute turned the refi down. In the interim, the rates went up and I had to eat the appraisal fee as well.
A condominium is a form of ownership. A townhouse is a style.
A condominium can be a high rise, a garden apartment, a townhouse or a free standing single family home. Basically in a condo, you own from thje studs in, while the condo association owns the exterior walls, the land under the unit and common elements like pools, parking areas, etc. Sometines items such as decks or patios can be limited common elements ( it varies).
Go read the deed to your home. It will describe the form of ownership you have. Since the appraiser has to supply a legal description ( deed) to the lender with the appraisal, he for sure, read it first and appraised the property according to what it said.
Your realtor should be pulling comps and trying to figure out why specifically the appraisal is short. 50 sq ft isn't the problem, you can't take the price per sq ft and extrapolate it out like that it's much more complex.
1) Were the comps used good comps?
2) Does your agent have better comps than the ones used?
3) How much difference was it 5k 10k? Are you willing to come down a little to make the deal work?
Appraisers can only use what resources they have and bass value off of what they see, their sq footage is always going to be different because they measure when they are there and should have given you the layout they measured in their report.
A condominium is a form of ownership. A townhouse is a style.
A condominium can be a high rise, a garden apartment, a townhouse or a free standing single family home. Basically in a condo, you own from thje studs in, while the condo association owns the exterior walls, the land under the unit and common elements like pools, parking areas, etc. Sometines items such as decks or patios can be limited common elements ( it varies).
Go read the deed to your home. It will describe the form of ownership you have. Since the appraiser has to supply a legal description ( deed) to the lender with the appraisal, he for sure, read it first and appraised the property according to what it said.
Nope. Not always. The townhouses in Sun City Summerlin (Las Vegas) are owned to the outer paint, under the slab and the slab under the AC. Appraisal respect those dimensions. I have not looked at other townhouse appraisals but I have seen many of the Sun City ones. The ownership however is "condominium" with the local HOA responsible for paint and roofs and the land not under the building and its patio. So townhouses may well be very different than condominiums.
There is also one builder who puts up attached townhouses where the paint and roofs are not HOA property...but the HOA still determines when and what paint will be required. Roofs are also owned by the unit owner. This is a really bad concept designed to provide a low HOA fee.
Last edited by lvoc; 06-21-2015 at 02:46 PM..
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