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Financial Funding LLC commissioned my company to appraise a real estate property in Westchester County, NY in the Fall of last year. In order to facilitate proposed closing, we agreed to an expediated turnaround for a pre-agreed, non-contingent fee.
The appraisal was submitted to the client and accepted, and was invoiced November 8, 2013. After 30 days without payment we contacted Financial Funding LLC, and were told our invoice had been passed to the accounts department for settlement.
After a further thirty days passed without payment we re-contacted Financial Funding LLC, whose "Director of Operations" told us she could not explain the non-payment, and that she would have to speak with her Chairman before being able to inform us when to expect payment. Ten days have passed since our last conversation, and we have still not received either payment or notification of when to expect such.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Alastair Murdoch, MAI, FRICS
Rye,New York,
Financial Funding LLC's Appraisal Review Process
#3Author of original report
Sun, March 30, 2014
An unsigned draft of our appraisal was submitted to Financial Funding LLC for review 10/11/13 - receipt of which was acknowledged by Financial Funding LLC's Managing Director of Operations, Terri Galligan, by e-mail, on the same day.
Financial Funding LLC's underwriters' response to our draft was forwarded by Ms. Galligan 11/07/13, and requested only editorial changes with no comment in respect of our reported Market Value conclusion. We were instructed to finalize our appraisal with an unchanged opinion of Market Value. The final, signed appraisal was sent to Financial Funding LLC 11/08/13, and receipt was acknowledged, again by e-mail, again by Ms. Galligan, on the same day.
On 12/10/13 we were informed by Ms. Galligan that our invoice had been submitted to Financial Funding LLC's accounts department for payment.
We have all of this in writing, in a single, chronological chain of e-mail correspondence.
Our appraisal explicitly treated, and adjusted for, rooftop antennae income, which in this case accounts for over 25.0% of PGI and over 40.0% of NOI, making this a far from typical appraisal assignment.
We understand the subject property sold in January 2014 for a price equating to 100.8% of our appraised value, and that the acquisition was funded by a local bank. It appears Financial Funding LLC's loan applicant, unhappy with this lender's last-minute attempt to hike its promised rate, found alternative financing, and we suspect this is the root of Financial Funding LLC's reluctance to pay its invoice.
The only truthful statement in Financial Funding LLC's rebuttal is its recital of our business name and address. We would be happy to correspond and co-operate with any other victims of Financial Funding LLC's underhand practices, and are currently pursuing complaints with both the New York Better Business Bureau and the New York State Attorney General's Westchester County Office.
Financial Funding LLC
Eatontown,New Jersey,
In Response to Complaint from Appraiser in Westchester County New York
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Fri, March 28, 2014
In Response to the complaint from Appraiser, Westchester County New York
The appraisal request was made and the report was completed by the appraiser. The issue with the report is that the property is a multi-family property along with commercial spaces. That is not uncommon. What makes the property unique, is that it houses five telecom towers on the roof. Those towers were given value, which inflated the value of the property, yet none of the comparables included in the appraisal report included telecom towers. The property is in Westchester County, New York which is in proximity of plenty of buildings in the New York Metropolitan area. There are an abundance of properties which include telecom towers (multifamily, condo and co-op to name a few) in the metropolitan area. Our request was to include comparables that had the telecom towers so the value would be in line with more similar buildings. That request was made and not accommodated. The inclusion of the telecom tower income inflates the value substantially in comparison to all of the other properties included in the report. That is not beneficial to our client, nor to us. All appraisers send an initial draft copy of the appraisal, so the client and appraiser can provide constructive feedback prior to issuing a final report. This is industry standard, but this is not done with Williams Murdoch, Inc. of 319 Oakland Beach Avenue, Rye, NY 10580. Take heed prior to ordering appraisals from their company.