Out to take your money
Complaint
Herschel
Country: United States
My wife and I were in the process of refinancing our house. We contacted Quickenloans to begin the process of securing a loan. They promised a VA certified appraiser would do a thorough inspection of the house and compare its price to sales in the neighborhood.
From the beginning we were weary of the appraiser because although we were told she was local and that she knew our particular neighborhood, she got lost. Her inspection was quick and consisted in a few pictures, a walk around the property and a couple of questions; a little too fast for my liking but I did not question her methods. Two weeks later I contacted Quickenloans for the results of the appraisal and was told it was $145,000, it was not enough, and that the loan process had been cancelled. I had to ask more than 3 times for the original report that I paid for to see what basis was used to arrive to that appraisal price. When I finally got the report my suspicions of a sub-standard service were confirmed within the first few pages
The appraiser quoted a price for the property with little or no justification or reasoning for having arrived at that assumption. I base this off a phrase included in the report that says, “…there were no four bedroom sales available within a one year time frame and within a one mile radius…, …Sales #1,3, 4 were given greatest consideration due to recent sales and least amount of adjustments”. In other words in the appraiser’s opinion she did her comparison with properties of less rooms (3) because similar properties were not available; so she went ahead and used a different set of standards instead of trying to ascertain if addition information was accessible. Also, although she uses Sales 1 and 3 as part of her basis, she does mention that they are Real Estate Owned properties, which normally means repossessed by a Bank and in most cases sold as is because they are a trouble asset. Still she used these and compared them to a house that she herself admits was in good care.
This information that "was not available" was in fact easily accessible because just 2 days after receiving the report we proceeded to a Real Estate agency and were able to find 4 houses with similar characteristics to ours, and in the same neighborhood that were sold in the last year. All properties that we found had a higher final sale price than our property assessment. This means that the statement that no comparable properties were available was either a lie from the appraiser or a lack of effort and care in the service provided. I therefore did not want to pay for a deficient service. If I can walk into a Real Estate office and request sale records, a property assessment specialist that has access to all this information herself should do better.
I contacted Quickenloans about this and they were immediately not receptive about requesting a new appraisal and told me that I would have to pay for a new one if I want to “try and do this again”. I mentioned that I was being charged for a substandard service and that they were being willing participants in what seemed to be a fraud since there were no checks and balances when it came to protecting the customer who was at the mercy of seemingly unqualified service providers. I mentioned the possibility of disputing the charges for the appraisal and I was told that they encouraged that I not take that route and that because there were no 4 bedroom houses to compare mine “… the appraiser had a tough job coming up with the proper value”. Sadly it would seem that the appraiser really didn’t do her job at all because it took me 30 minutes at a real estate office to get the public record on recent sales of comparable properties.
I will not pay for another appraisal, and the unwillingness of Quickenloans to back a client who is given a less than standard service makes me question their business ethic and therefore I am disputing any charges that Quickenloans makes on my credit card because I believe that these predatory practices in the times we are currently going through are ridiculous.
From the beginning we were weary of the appraiser because although we were told she was local and that she knew our particular neighborhood, she got lost. Her inspection was quick and consisted in a few pictures, a walk around the property and a couple of questions; a little too fast for my liking but I did not question her methods. Two weeks later I contacted Quickenloans for the results of the appraisal and was told it was $145,000, it was not enough, and that the loan process had been cancelled. I had to ask more than 3 times for the original report that I paid for to see what basis was used to arrive to that appraisal price. When I finally got the report my suspicions of a sub-standard service were confirmed within the first few pages
The appraiser quoted a price for the property with little or no justification or reasoning for having arrived at that assumption. I base this off a phrase included in the report that says, “…there were no four bedroom sales available within a one year time frame and within a one mile radius…, …Sales #1,3, 4 were given greatest consideration due to recent sales and least amount of adjustments”. In other words in the appraiser’s opinion she did her comparison with properties of less rooms (3) because similar properties were not available; so she went ahead and used a different set of standards instead of trying to ascertain if addition information was accessible. Also, although she uses Sales 1 and 3 as part of her basis, she does mention that they are Real Estate Owned properties, which normally means repossessed by a Bank and in most cases sold as is because they are a trouble asset. Still she used these and compared them to a house that she herself admits was in good care.
This information that "was not available" was in fact easily accessible because just 2 days after receiving the report we proceeded to a Real Estate agency and were able to find 4 houses with similar characteristics to ours, and in the same neighborhood that were sold in the last year. All properties that we found had a higher final sale price than our property assessment. This means that the statement that no comparable properties were available was either a lie from the appraiser or a lack of effort and care in the service provided. I therefore did not want to pay for a deficient service. If I can walk into a Real Estate office and request sale records, a property assessment specialist that has access to all this information herself should do better.
I contacted Quickenloans about this and they were immediately not receptive about requesting a new appraisal and told me that I would have to pay for a new one if I want to “try and do this again”. I mentioned that I was being charged for a substandard service and that they were being willing participants in what seemed to be a fraud since there were no checks and balances when it came to protecting the customer who was at the mercy of seemingly unqualified service providers. I mentioned the possibility of disputing the charges for the appraisal and I was told that they encouraged that I not take that route and that because there were no 4 bedroom houses to compare mine “… the appraiser had a tough job coming up with the proper value”. Sadly it would seem that the appraiser really didn’t do her job at all because it took me 30 minutes at a real estate office to get the public record on recent sales of comparable properties.
I will not pay for another appraisal, and the unwillingness of Quickenloans to back a client who is given a less than standard service makes me question their business ethic and therefore I am disputing any charges that Quickenloans makes on my credit card because I believe that these predatory practices in the times we are currently going through are ridiculous.
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