Complaint Review: Nick James - Santa Monica California

I paid $350 for a BPO through Nick James and his company AAG valuations (AAG stands for Associates Appraisal Group.) He delivered the report in a reasonable amount of time, and was pleasant and professional when we met up at the property. This was February 4th 2018. I was told repeatedly and very explicitly, that if I needed the BPO upgraded to a full appraisal, that he could do that for only $150 up charge, and that since the appraisal format and paperwork was identical, it would be both quick and easy.

The original report came back RIDDLED with errors. Wrong city, wrong information on the comps and general data, tons of spelling and typographical errors. It was bad. It was very clear this had been outsourced to a virtual assistant in India or the Philippines. It was clearly done on some kind of a boilerplate template by a VA who gets maybe $3 per hour.

But Nick was reasonable and willing to correct the errors, which he did (for the most part) over the course of a couple weeks.

Fast forward to February 22nd. Our lender requests that Nick update the appraisal sheet with 3 simple things: 1. The appraiser's license #. 2. A copy of their E&O (errors and omissions) insurance. and 3. a copy of the scope of work - which we had provided much earlier.

So basically all Nick had to do, was ask us for $150, and have his reviewer include our project budget (scope of work) plus his E&O and license number. A very basic and simple request. But as we found out, nobody who works for Nick, has E&O or is a licensed appraiser. It's a fake company.

Almost a full week goes by with no communication. No updated report. No anything. Finally, Wednesday February 28th, Nick reaches out to request the $150, which I immediately pay via PayPal, to his assistant Alana. He explains it should be available by that evening, possibly the end of the following day (Thursday March 1st.)

Wednesday passes. Nothing. Then Thursday. Still nothing. Friday, at 8am he writes that he reviwer is "working on it, and hopefully should have it back by the end of the day." We get in an argument on the phone because it's clear at this point that nobody is "on staff" at AAG, and they're just a broker who collects money for appraisals, and then assigns them to be done virtually by foreign companies over seas.

He says 3 different reviwers have received the report for updating, but then there's no word or any communication the whole weekend. Monday, March 5th he says "I'm having some problems with our regular reviewers. I might have to a. outsource the review or b. issue a refund." At this point I've had to get another extension from escrow of the close date. Not easy to do.

3 days go by with me emailing and calling and texting each day, and absolutely no word from Nick until March 8th, when he says "None of them have got back to me I've been calling them all morning. If they don't get it in to me by Saturday I will just issue a refund."

That was last Thursday. It's not after hours on Wednesday March 14th. Over 2 weeks since I paid for the review, and almost 3 weeks since the review was requested. I have screen shots of all our conversations, and you can see many times I reached out for an update, any information at all, and was ignored for several days in a row by Nick.

After all this time, still no information on the identity or credentials of those who work as reviewers for AAG. No communication at all. Not even a refund, which I don't want. What I want is the appraisal I paid for. That's all I've been asking for all this time. Having to wait this long and to be ignored and to not have any upper management or supervisor who I can communicate with, is truly frustrating, and unprofessional.