Forum Archive: Appraisals

We are working on a refi and would like to gather some comps. Does anyone have knowledge of recent sales of renovated two or three family brownstones? Central Cobble Hill, reno is about ten years old, new brownstone facade, bldg is 20×40, 100 foot lot, mid-block.

So we just heard from the bank, and the house we expected to close on very shortly appraised at 150k less than the purchase price. From what I understand anecdotally, you are unlikely to get anywhere contesting the appraisal. We are emptying our accounts to get to closing and just don’t have any more money to close the entire gap. So…what happens now? Is it either that the seller lowers the price (why would they?) or the deal just dies? Meanwhile, my spouse is now worried that we’re overpaying; we’ve already given our landlord notice; etc. Is this common? Is there something that I can do? Sign me, Freaking out in the Slope

Looking to do a patch and paint on our brownstone. Not sure what a reasonable quote should be – just received one for $14k – seemed high to me but not sure

Listing prices are clearly up lately; have appraisals been following suit? I’m curious to hear about recent war stories either on new purchases or re-fis. Thanks.

I wanted to post a question, and the following is some information which I think is necessary to know first.

We are a small, 15 unit brownstone coop building and are considering doing some minor plumbing work to change our individual gas meters (dedicated to cooking only) to a single meter. This would presumably garner individual tenants a combined net savings of $1750/yr (partially kicked back to coop reserves), since it seems that a very large part of our individual monthly gas bills is for service of individual meters and carry charges and not for the actual gas usage. Apartments would still have their own shut off valves, in case isolated work was necessary on an individual line.

Our calculations are that we would recoup the costs for the plumbing work within a couple of years, and then the coop would get $1000/yr additional directly to our reserves.

SO… my question. Someone in the building felt that this alteration could negatively affect the re-sale value of an individual’s unit. Can anyone here offer informed feedback on this issue? And otherwise if you have any comments about this plan, please feel free to chime in.

I am looking for someone to appraise the value of a 2 bed coop apartment in Park Slope. Does anyone have any recommendations? Much appreciated!

Do people ever get a place appraised before negotiating a price and signing a contract? We have buyers who want to do this and I’ve never heard of it in NYC but times have changed since last time I bought…

Does anyone out there have any experience or anecdotes with appraisers drastically undervaluing properties? I have some personal experience with this recently in my attempts to refinance, and have been hearing startling stories of drastic neglect for what the market actually values things at being. Does anyone feel that there are forces putting pressure on appraisers to undervalue. I realize that over valuing is part of what got us into this mess in the first place. I have heard stories of buyers and sellers agreeing on a price and appraisers coming back with valuations that up to 25% less than the agreed upon price. This seems to be more than coincidental. Don’t we as the consumers who have to pay for these appraisals have any recourse when we feel the job has been very poorly done?

Can anyone advise me what action I can take to get an inaccurate appraisal of my apartment rectified? I recently decided to refinance my mortgage in the hopes of getting a lower interest rate. The mortgage broker arranged an appraisal which valued my apartment significantly below its true value because the appraiser managed to omit the private garden, central air and second half-bathroom, thereby significantly lowering the appraised value, to the point where the refinance could not go ahead. The broker rebutted the report, but has subsequently dropped me like a hot potato and won’t return my calls so I presume he has given up on arranging my refinance. I would like to challenge the appraiser’s report, more on principle than anything else. It was a shoddy piece of work and the appraiser should be obliged to rectify his errors, IMHO.
I have written to the appraiser directly, but have received no response yet. So, my question is, is there a governing body that oversees/licenses appraisers that I could approach? Surely there are codes of ethics, standards, etc. that apply to appraisers? Any other suggestions for dealing with this gratefully received.