We recently considered refinancing our home to pull out equity and our rural home was appraised by this Austin appraiser. The appraisal came back $100k less than the local appraisal district and $45k less than the formal appraisal done by a local rural appraiser on the same property before we bought the home 3 years ago. Some disparity can be expected, and part of the CAD's higher appraisal was based off of inaccurate square footage, but even so, land values in our area have gone up, not down, and there should not have been such a great disparity between the two professional appraisals. The Post Oak appraiser Lance Lester failed to list all of the rooms in our home properly and referenced a comp from a land sale from over a year ago to get a price per acre, but would not look at closer, more recent land sales that showed the price per acre at over $7k more than the value he used.
He also used comps from a neighboring county from over a year ago, but would not consider more recent comps from the same neighboring county because he said it was a "neighboring county and the schools were better, so the properties weren't really comparable." The schools in both counties are actually rated the same-C's-so it is doubtful schools are a huge factor in deciding where to live in our area--plus, how can he use comps from that neighboring county (much further away within it) but then refuse to look at other, closer and more recent comps in that SAME neighboring county?
Our home is one of only two in the town we live in that is in our county. Every other home in our town is in that "neighboring county"--it was clear he was not familiar with our area. In speaking with local realtors and another local appraiser-they feel his refusal to look at those comps was ridiculous and that his valuation is way off. With such limited sales in the rural area and the variance in types of homes, it is necessary to make adjustments to use what is available. His refusal to look at more recent sales based of of criteria he ignored when picking his own comps does not make sense.
Save yourself the hassle if you need a rural appraisal-- use a local, rural specialist--and find someone willing to look at the facts and not be hypocritical on criteria for comps used. He seemed more concerned with being justified than in getting an accurate value on our home. read more