Been a while since I've written a review, and usually only do so as word of mouth can kill small business. So, with that said, let me be clear: please put this small business out of its misery. Mr Evans and his team are doing no favors for the Chico community with their service, business model and implementation. So...someone move in the for the mercy kill. PLEASE. Why do I feel this way? As another unhappy customer (simply look at the reviews on Yelp, Google etc etc...), let me give you some background. We contacted our bank for a refinance in July 2021. Conditional approval for a fairly significant rate improvement upon closing was obtained pending an appraisal. In the past 14 months my home has been appraised twice once for a Rocket Mortgage refi attempt (for the record they don't refi over 20 acres, which is why it fell through), and a home equity line of credit (HELOC) which we recently used to convert an unfinished second story of a garage (1270sq ft) to an in-law apartment. Since the most recent appraisal 12 months ago, which was fair and within the standard deviation of comps in the area where we live, we had completed close to $200k of work on our home, including the addition of the aforementioned in-law apartment. Time to REFI! Firstly, Mr. Evans and his associate arrived about an hour late. I took the day off from work to be sure to be home and go over any improvements since we purchased the home in early 2018. Mr. Evans and his team moved swiftly. So quickly, in fact, that there had completed the exterior of the home in no more than 18-19 minutes (pretty easy timeline to assess with a Ring security system). Upon entry into the home, he promptly handed me his card and asked that I take the weekend (3 days or so) and think "very carefully" about all of the improvements we had performed. I was to email him Monday the following week with the list of improvements. They departed. Polite, cordial. Easy enough. I was reassured. Spent just under 3 hours on Saturday assembling a list of the many improvements we had accomplished over the past 3 years. Fencing damaged by the Camp Fire, new chandelier, the in-law apartment etc, etc....Composed an email Sunday, and pressed send Monday at 1:20pm. 45 minutes later I receive word that the upgrades would not be used as they were received too late. Fast forward a week and the assessed value came in almost 20% lower than my last, and 25% lower than the lowest I'd received to date. This in the setting of a competitive market and a 1300sq ft addition! So, one star? No. Not even one star. Am I upset the value is less than expected? Sure. But the real tragedy is that this company is sketchy, somehow still in business, and robbing local home owners of equity they most likely have in their homes. By dollars that are statistically significant. This is outright criminal. read more

Be aware low appraisals!! This guy is ignorant and arrogant. Do not hire Mark if you can help it. He uses comps that are ridiculous and won't reflect the true value of your especially if it's custom. Gives no credit for updates or condition. read more

I had a drive by appraisal done last month and I have a guest house on my property. I asked why pictures were not used in the appraisal I paid for and I was told it was In Her records? What? This is not reflected on my hard copy of my appraisal. What if I wanted to use it? Are they suppose to ask you for photos ? What's the point of an appraisal if it's not accurate? It does not match the picture on my appraisal where it says photo of guest house. Instead it's a picture of the front of a property on the next street over. How is this right? How are you ok taking my money? Did not even offer to make things right . I asked to provide a picture of the guest house to correct the appraisal and I was denied . I'd like my money back ! I guess it was too much work. Very little work for $400 of my hard earned money . Would not recommend. read more

Pray you don't get this guy he will kill your deal. He gave such a low appraisal we had to sell instead of a refinance. Are price was at least 10 persent under market value. read more

I'm currently going through a Refi and the bank chose Evans Appraisal. I have had nothing but issues with the report. So many inaccuracies from the actual sq ft to lying about access to the attic, making me pay someone else to come out and verify it's ok because he was too lazy to get up on a latter. Grossly undervalued our home. Was unprofessional and spent an unusual amount of time talking about himself. Most disturbing is the dishonesty . read more

Just retired Realtor, sold 1,000+ homes so have dealt with a lot of appraisers. Subject house 3,632 sq.ft, 5 beds, 3& 1/2 baths, 4 years old, double lot. He uses a nearby tear down and comps from pre-pandemic market from 2019. House under agreement on same street is a 31 year old home, 4 doors away w/3 bedrooms and 1 bath, 1,750 sq. ft on a single lot pending at $599,000 and a phone call to the Realtor would have told him they got $549,900. So if neighbor is 1/2 the size on 1/2 the lot and 8X older with 2 1/2 less baths and 2 less beds got $549,900 should subject appraise for $525,000. Even the mortgage company who reviewed the appraisal said it was a terrible injustice. Stay away. read more

My family and I can't express enough how happy were were with Evans Appraisal's. The Appraiser Mark, was on time, very patient, professional and thorough. He took the time to explain the process and answer all of our questions. The great service started with the scheduling and estimate and continued with diligent follow up, I was out of town with no wifi but they went above and beyond to contact me. A little extra info, 3 Appraisers I called first via yellow pages were not immediately available as we needed and they all referred me to Evans! read more

All they did was take an outside measurement of the home, calculate square footage and come up with a conservative estimate of value...covered their backs but was it a fair estimate of value? It certainly was quick and easy to do... read more

Please, if you are unhappy with Evans Appraisal, file a complaint!! This firm is disrespectful of their clients and there are resources out there to hear your complaints. Please take the take time to research your options i.e., CA State Appraisal Board, Veterans, ect. File a complaint!! read more

I just received an appraisal from Evans Appraisal Service, for a home that I am in the process of purchasing. After going through the document, I was very impressed with their work. It was extremely well done, and makes me feel a lot more confident with going through this purchase. Since I'm getting a VA loan, I was apprehensive since the VA has very strict requirements. Evans Appraisal was very fast with the completion of the document and it was accepted by the VA immediately. Great work Mark! BooHoo to all the nay-sayers. From a very satisfied customer. Thanks! read more

We were not happy with the appraisal we received from Evans, and went through the process of appeal. First of all, the appraiser appeared to be lazy and/or unprofessional. While she was quick to take the only copy of house plans we had, and stated she would mail them back, it wasn't until we called after a few weeks had passed and we called to request their return several weeks later, that we received them back. She quickly zipped through the house snapping pictures and left. She didn't take the time to look at the construction, resulting in errors on her report. When we appealed, taking time to find homes in our very small town that were recent sales of comparable construction, she denied one that is in our neighborhood, stating that it was smaller, hence worth more than ours, while using a comparable more than a mile away that was also substantially smaller. She based her valuation on the price we paid for the house: a price that was extremely low because the seller had failed to clean and fix up the house and because he had moved to assisted living and wanted to get rid of the place. Our home was valued as the lowest in our subdivision, while it is on one of the largest lots, has extremely solid custom construction and a 4 bedroom, 3 bath: not so over-sized as to be undesirable by any means, yet it is valued at 25% less than a smaller home on a smaller lot just down the street. If she had not known our purchase price and how much the seller was asking I believe her valuation would have been higher, and that opinion is based on her statements in her reply to our appeal. I understand that appraisal companies have a duty to be accountable and not viewed as catering to the loan companies, but I believe that the appraiser's initial appraisal was quick and easy, and when appealed she couldn't/wouldn't admit that she was wrong, so stuck to her original with a poor rationale. read more

So my wife and I had our house built in 10/2012...the first house we've ever bought after retiring from the military. Now I am not an appraiser but I do not understand how my "new" home was appraised $5,000.00 lower than the price I paid for it. I was under the impression the housing market was climbing. Additionally, we just had a more expensive home built across the street which by all thoughts "should" increase the property values around the neighborhood. Like other reviewers these individuals just took measurements of the home and seemed to be focused on improvements to the home. Improvements to a new home??? I would avoid this organization at all costs. read more

The appraiser was arrogant when he came out to view the property, full of self importance. When asked that day how long the appraisal would take he said 2-3 weeks but also made a point to mention that by law he has a month to complete the appraisal. Three weeks go by, no appraisal. After three weeks our buyer stopped by Evans office to ask about the status. The President of Evans was unaware and surprised the appraisal hadn't been finished yet and said he'd check on it. A month goes by, still no appraisal. After the month mark, we were warned by the lender not to contact the appraiser to inquire as to the status of the appraisal or it could be considered harassment and this appraiser might then refuse to complete the appraisal. It took 35 days for the appraisal to get to the lender and at no time did the appraisal company reach out to give an update or explain what was taking so long. read more

Evans Appraisal spent less than 15 minutes at my home and obviously had a full schedule for the day. The appraisal came in more than 50k under the lowest comp he provided. They are in the business of making banks money or buying undervalued homes. Unethical, crooked, lazy, and just plain wrong. read more

Evans Appraisal was horrible. The made an appointment and then changed it without telling me. I waited for an hour then had to call them and thats when they told me they changed the date. When they did show up they appraised the house 40k less than surrounding houses. His comparisons were not accurate with our house!! I would never use or recommend Evans Appraisal to ANYONE!!! read more

Not good. After weeks of carefully researched negotiations, the sellers and prospective buyers of a high-end home agreed upon a fair purchase price. The bank ordered an appraisal, and Evan Appraising was randomly chosen from a pool. The appraisal came in more than 22% below the negotiated purchase price, which essentially "blew-up" the deal. Both the buyers and seller were represented by experienced real estate agents. Everyone involved was utterly dismayed by the ridiculously low appraisal. The buyers, sellers, and each agent volunteered to pay for a 2nd appraisal by anyone not associated with Evans Appraisal Service. In the end, the bank had its internal appraiser review the appraisal, who found numerous errors and omissions. It was deemed that there was "no confidence" in the original appraisal. The bank then footed the bill for a 2nd appraisal. The next randomly selected appraiser, two weeks later, valued the property at the negotiated purchase price. read more

Incompetence Glorified! Evans came out and was at our house for about 20 minutes. He took measurements and some pictures. Many of the pictures were blurry and you could not tell what was in the pictures, He did take measurements but they were cursory and easily found off the original county or city planning documents. Upon his completion of the "appraisal", if you could call it that, he spent more time talking about his so called military career than he did doing his job we paid for. As he was leaving, we mentioned that if he had taken into account all the upgrades we had done and he told us to "write" him a list and send it to him for "consideration". It seems that should be his job but we did as we were asked and even with that, they were not added and our appraisal was less than the house should be. In addition, I personally found numerous errors in the appraisal report itself and I am not trained in appraisal .When confronted about the lack luster job and a challenge, he will not budge and freely admits he could not find "current" comps so he just found some and used them. It seems as an appraisal expert, or so called, he would be able to better assess the value of homes and actually do their job. I would NOT recommend this company other than the receptionist, who seems very competent. Beyond that, run fast and far if you should even be offered services from this less than stellar company. If I were running this company I would be offering to refund the appraisal fee due to their personnel not completing the assigned task appropriately. read more