nar looking to weaken appraisal rules...

..."including problems with appraisals..."

It can be a real problem when those pesky appraisers insist on putting real values in their reports. Screws up the whole system.

I like the term "bpo" broker price opinion. It doesn't even sound legitimate. Anyone know which is more accurate on average an AVM or a BPO?

Or a Zestimate?

ah:ha!

the imbacils that are doing appraisals now are just that, brain dead imbacils. with condos and houses, you can see sq ft, so the appraisal is not too bad. with coops, there's none of that info, so the appraiser, who has no clue where he is, comes in does what he thinks is an appraisal. lots of time he misses by a wide margin, sometimes up sometimes down.

you should not expect a person with a phone number from suffolk or orange counties to be able to do a quality appraisal of an area 40+ miles away from their comfort zone.

I understand what you're saying and that is a bog problem with appraisals. I've seen some appraisals with people from Pennsylvania and it was a disaster.

ab_11218, per FNMA guidelines, appraisers are required to measure from interior wall to interior wall vs. exterior wall to exterior wall that ALL condo offering plans get their square footage from. It's really not uncommon for there to be a difference between gross (offering plan) and net (measured) square footage, especially in new construction condos. For cooperatives, the concept is the same.

The appraisal just came in (and was accepted by the bank) on a co-op unit I'm purchasing and the appraiser missed an entire bedroom (he described the purchase unit as 1 bedroom when its a 2 bedroom). Both bedrooms have windows and closets, and are not 'conversions' but are original to the apartment. He also made up comps as far as I can tell. Streeteasy has no evidence that one of the apartments he listed as a comparable even exists. Furthermore he listed comp. apt's as having square footage, bedrooms and bathrooms that directly and wildly contradict the way they are listed on streeteasy. For example he says one of the comp apt.'s is 950 sq. feet, while streeteasy says is 400 sq. ft. Despite all of this, the value came in at slightly above the sale price. Do I just let it go?

Would you complain if it was an over-appraisal?

Good question. I actually think it is an over-appraisal to support the sale price. I'm more interested in paying a price commensurate with the 'true value' and believe I could negotiate the price downward with the seller. By 'true value' I mean the value determined by a legitimate and accurate appraisal.

The appraisal really serves no purpose other than to protect the lender from providing you the buyer too much credit.

Succint and logical. Thanks.