The appraisers for the Servicer in a Short Sale can make or break the acceptance of the offer. If they are not familiar with the area, the development, the price trends in the neighborhood…your deal could sink like a HUGE stone. That’s what happened to me..more than once. Each Lender is different (Lender being the Servicer here.) Bank of America has more bad notes than any other bank so the numbers of bad appraisals tilts to them.
In the Laguna Niguel home that has been the longest, most ill-handled of any I’ve had with Bank of America, the latest appraisal is so far over market value that it defies common sense. But..common sense and Lenders/Investors is not in the same sentence..EVER!
My offer is for $865,000. Fair Market Value. Their appraisal came back for this Buyer (#4) at $1,050,000. As I mentioned before..this just happens to be the List Price I started at almost a year ago. I suspect this appraiser came in at an easy number, never did the appraisal at all..just put the $ in their pockets. A whopping what..$50 or so? I don’t know, but they don’t make much…part of the problem..but that’s another story.
The Bank of America Social media contact did escalate my file and I was contacted yesterday to fill out a form and submit my best supporting comps. There are only 3 SOLD homes in the same gated neighborhood so that wasn’t hard to track down. All 3 of them support my price/sf. Where did that appraiser come up with that inflated value. Hmmm…very interesting and suspiscious that their appraised value just happens to match original list value. Really smart and creative of the appraisal company.
Should we all hold our breath and see if Bank of America over rules the high valuation? I’m not going to..that would take some common sense. If they do however, I will fall off my chair and then hit the blogs..