The appraiser case out to our home on June 30.
When I requested her services, there was definitely a miscommunication/misunderstanding of her fee. Turns out her fee was an hourly rate, not just the day she came out but the time in which she estimated it would take her to do the research and put together her appraisal report.
I was shocked that Saturday when she collected payment and it showed. She called me a few hours later to share with me that two of our painting were estimated to be valued at ~$100,000.00, EACH. She said she knew her fee was a concern so she wanted me to know that we had valuable art work.
Within the next few weeks, her tune changed, she asked us to provide information on the artists and any background we had on the paintings. If we had this, we could've done our own research. One of those she said was worth was $100k turned out to be valued at $8k and the other that she said was $100k was $15k, based on her appraisal, which we question the validity of the report.
She claimed there was multiple artists that had done very similar work and ours were from the lesser known artists.
I received our appraisal report this week. Almost 2 months after her initial visit.
It's considerably lower than she had led us to believe it would be.
I sent her an email suggesting that in the future she not give appraisal estimates without first doing all of her research. Her reply was that she always does her research first.
My initial email to her:
I want to share with you that in the future, you should forego giving an appraisal before you do your research, that's quite unprofessional.
This is her response:
I am not sure what you mean. It is not my practice to do an appraisal before I do my research. Doing the research is a part of the appraisal process. It is not possible for an appraiser to know about every type of item we appraise, therefore we have to research even if we know the value in order to document a comparable. However, it's in the knowing what to look for in our research and where to research, combined with our personal knowledge that brings us to a value.
My response back:
Initially, you called later that afternoon after your first visit and told me that two of the paintings were ~$100k, each. You did so to help take the sting out of your fee, since I'd misunderstood your fee.
I just caution you to be careful doing this in the future.
Her response:
Hi,
You are absolutely correct! My apologies.
Warm Regards,
Masterpiece Appraisals, LLC
Due to her accepting responsibility I've added an additional star.
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