Complaint Review: Cooperative Appraisal

This is a complaint in the matter concerning Lynette Richter, who works for Cooperative Appraisal located at 6441 Enterprise Lane, Suite 115, Madison, WI 53719 -phone number 608-661-0280.

Ms. Richter was to give a home appraisal for Quicken Loans, in which I was to refinance my home. We expected a home value of $215,000 - $230,000. We were shocked to find an appraisal value, completed by Lynette Richter, of $170,000. Quicken Loans contacted Ms. Richter to find the reasons of the low appraisal. Quicken Loans asked for more comparable homes of our size and location. After several days, Ms. Richter refused to budge on her appraisal of our home.

After I spoke with Quicken Loans, I was perplexed and shocked to find such a low value of my home and requested a copy of the appraisal report. Upon receiving the 27-page report, I noted several errors were made. I have a 1973 house, and her report stated 1975. Ms. Richter reported we have no shed, however, we have an 8'x10' shed on cement that is clearly shown in one of her pictures. We do not have forced air; we have baseboard heat. After viewing this information, I became concerned with her ability as an appraiser. I further looked into other details of the appraisal report and found the square footage to be grossly incorrect. My suspicion was then confirmed that the value of our home was grossly inaccurate and immediately needed attention because we were trying to lock in at a low 30 year fixed interest rate. The total square footage of our home is 2560, not 1972 as I measured it and was confirmed by the original blueprints of our home.

I then called Quicken Loans to let them know of the errors in Ms. Richter's appraisal report. After Quicken Loans contacted her about the square footage and other errors, again, Ms. Richter refused to increase the value of the home and said the square footage would not make any difference in the value of the home at all. The 590 square feet represent 1/3 of the square footage of the home at 1900 square feet. Ms. Richter refused to have this be considered in the value of the home. I measured the building, which was confirmed from the original blueprints we have of the home from 1973. Quicken Loans called and said there was nothing they could do, and we were allowed only one FHA appraisal per application and, thus, was denied a refinance of our home.

I then contacted Rita Hubanks, the owner of Cooperative Appraisal, and spoke with her on this matter. We spoke about the comparisons of a $118,000, 1400 square foot, 9000 square foot lot size, to our 2560 square foot, 29,000 square foot lot size. The homes that were compared to ours were in Watertown - Ms. Richter stated 867 Brentwood was 9-10 miles, when it is actually 16.75 miles. Another home, located 315 N. Water St. in Watertown is 17.51 miles. We spoke about economic conditions and I pointed out the errors, she also said it would not make a difference in an appraisal.

This shocked me. I have a very large 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, 3 car garage, on a double lot on a quiet Cal du Sac street. Ms. Hubanks said she would talk with Ms. Richter and get back to me before the day ended. She did not return the call. I called a week later to discuss the same matter and Ms. Hubanks informed me Ms. Richter had come out to our property again to re-measure the square footage. I was told by Ms. Hubanks that Ms. Richter only looked for sold homes from an MLS. I asked why she didn't use other resources that are available to find other homes sold in the past year. Ms. Hubanks told me I could go and look for homes sold within the past year and bring them to Cooperative Appraisal and add that home as a comparison towards the appraisal. I then told Ms. Hubanks that I was not a professional appraisal and that was something that was paid to Ms. Richter for her to do. Ms. Hubanks again said she'd call Ms. Richter and get back to me by the end of the day. Again, no one from Cooperative Appraisal contacted me. Another week passed, I called again 10/14/08. We discussed this matter again and Ms. Hubanks informed me the terrain was very rough and was difficult for Ms. Richter to get an accurate measure from her device. I explained the area to be measured is completely flat and there should be no error. I also said Ms. Richter's error was off over six feet and that was highly unlikely. Ms. Hubanks told me she got lengths of 22' and 24', to which I questioned why Ms. Richter put down 20'. I said if she had a problem, Ms. Richter should have used a 25' tape measure. Ms. Hubanks then wanted a copy of our house plans faxed to her. I told her I would take care of it, however, after thinking about our conversations, I realized Ms. Richter had not come out again to take measurements. If she had, they would be more accurate and not 6 feet off. Ms. Richter never contacted me through this 3 weeks. Not one time did she call to discuss the square footage issue. After getting the runaround and several weeks passing, I realize I need to file a complaint and take this matter to someone who is professional and cares. I feel they did not take my home refinance very seriously. If I were the owner of this company, I would demand my employee immediately remeasure this house and correct all the errors and do a diligent job in appraising the home.

I have already wasted $300 for this home appraisal process and may have damages of an increased interest rate, directly related to the poorly prepared, inaccurate, and time sensitive issue in this appraisal report.

On page 3 of Opinion of Site Value, I again noted several discrepancies. There it is stated 1972 square feet at $85, which equals $167,620. Our house is 2560 square feet. If you take the $85/square foot, the difference is 590 square feet multiplied by $85 equals an increase of $50,150. The basement square footage was off by another 303 square feet. If you take this multiplied by her $20/square foot, there will be an increased value of $6,060. When all the numbers come together, it shows a value of the house at $207,527, which is low, but a more reasonable value of the home compared to $170,000.

These are the dimensions of our home:
Basement 26'4 x 48' = 1263.84 square feet
Lower level 26'4 x 48' = 1263.84 square feet
Upper level 25'9 x 28' = 718.48 square feet and 22'3 x 26' = 579.8 square feet
Which brings the upper total square footage to 1298.28, for a total square footage of 2562.12.

On gross living area, Ms. Richter had us at $45/square foot. When comparing my 1972 square foot to a comparable home of 1932 square foot, I got an adjustment of $1800 for the 40 extra feet.

However, when you add the 590 square foot mistake by $45/square foot, the adjustment would come out to $24,660 alone.

Another concern I had was our .66 acres of land (28,488 square feet) in comparison to a small house with only 9000 square feet of land and not having any adjustments made.

Also, I had a minus $30,000 adjustment in the Watertown homes that were 17 miles away with a square footage of 14,000 & 16,000 in land. I want to know if she even looked at the homes she was comparing to.

On page 5 of Uniform Residential Appraisal Report, Ms. Richter writes she has adequate
market data to develop a reliable sales comparison approach for this appraisal assignment.

She also stated on #7 she selected and used comparable sales that are locationally, physically and functionally the most similar to the subject property.

In #11, Ms. Richter states she has knowledge and experience in appraising this type of property in this market area. I would further request how much expertise and knowledge she really has.

Ms. Richter stated on page 2 of the Addendum under comments on sales comparison that she did a thorough search and stated there was no adjustments for lot variations and the comparables, as these lot size variations would likely have minimal impact on value. When I see that small house on 315 Main Street and look at our house and lot size, I am perplexed.

On page 4 of the Addendum, Ms. Richter writes it is the opinion of this appraiser that any source used in locating comparable-sales properties was sufficient, reasonable and appropriate, and that the comparable-market data and recited sales as analyzed in this report sufficiently provide a reasonable, appropriate, or reliable estimate of the value of the property in question. However, the research of comparable-sales properties for the purposes of this report may have unintentionally omitted other comparable-sales properties, which are more comparable, more recent and more proximal to the sales properties. Such unintentional omissions are inherent in the appraisal process since the data, and its sources, for comparable-sales properties continuously changes: nevertheless, the comparable-sales properties as listed in this report are assumed to derive from the most recent and reliable resources available to the appraiser at the time of the report. I find this uncharacteristic of an appropriate home appraisal.

A copy of the Appraisal in dispute will be e-mailed. I feel Ms. Richter's was very unprofessional, uncooperative, difficulty in mathematical computations, and a poor judgment in using commonsense when a home value grossly misrepresents the value. I feel she was personally angry with me when she came to my home. I don't know why, I thought she was having a very bad day and took it out on me. She had no smile, I had to introduce myself, only one time of eye contact. I had a feeling this appraisal would be real bad, like around $205,000. I don't know what her problem was, nor, her desire to minimize the value of my home. Also, I can't understand why she did a rush job with all the errors. It does not make sense for her to not double check her figures. I was under the assumption people who

Appraise homes were held to a higher standard in the field of real estate. I submit this complaint form so as no one else will be put in this unjust situation when trying to refinance. Also, I request an immediate response and swift process to repair this unjust so I may refinance my home.

Jerry
reeseville, Wisconsin
U.S.A.