Mary Connolley was the worst appraiser I've worked with in any of my prior home sales. She didn't understand the Shepherdstown market, and selected in appropriate comps. Why is that? The downstairs is a finished, rentable space with a fair market rental value of $700 per month. She marked the basement as "unfinished" and did not give any value for it. We lost $60K in value, and that is with a reduced asking price, as it was. Shepherdstown is a higher assessed value than just outside the town limits. When it was contested for reevaluation, we found out she caught COVID19 and the company was unable to or would not conduct a new appraisal and would need to wait for her recovery. The closing was in a week. Totally unacceptable, and not responsive to our needs. WE spent the money on an appraisal - we are their customer and did not get the value for the cost. read more

This is not a bitter customer complaining about the appraisal I received on my home. The number the appraiser came back with was fine. The experience I had with Wise Appraisal Services was the absolute most unprofessional business I've ever dealt with. I requested an independent appraisal on a rental property of mine. When the appraiser called to set up the appraisal day and time I discussed with her that I owned the home and that there was a renter in the home who may be interested in buying the home and that she would be present at the time of the appraisal because her belongings were in the house and I respected that she didn't want people in there without her present BUT that this why MY appraisal and it was not to be discussed with anyone but me. The appraiser beat me to the house the day of the appraisal and when I got there she told me that the renter had already answered all the questions that she had about the house, she took some pictures and then headed out the front door to look around the outside. She shook the renters hand and thanked her for letting her in. Walked right by me and out the door. Not a handshake , not a thank you, nothing to me. Mind you I'm paying for this appraisal. I approached the appraiser outside of the home and asked if she had any other questions about the house since I was the owner and the renter may not have all the information she needed she said " nope she answered all of my questions. She was great!" Then she made a smart comment about my realtors comps, saying " oh and you can let your realtor know that I have twice as many comps as she gave me." As if she was offended that my realtor gave her a report after THIS VERY APPRAISER had just given a seminar at my realtors office saying how much they appreciate when the realtors provide them with comps. THEN I later found out this appraiser asked the renter what her concerns were for the house and wrote them down to consider during the appraisal, discussed comps with her AND gave her a rough estimate of what she thought at the time the appraisal would probably come in at. Now again, the appraiser didn't ask me ANY questions, didn't discuss ANY numbers with me and was rude to me the one time I did try to speak with her. I called the appraiser when the appraisal was in and she confirmed that yes she did discuss all of these things with my renter and she " had a right to know these things because she was part of it." Again this was MY INDEPENDENT APPRAISAL that I alone paid for. So no the renter didn't have a right and wasn't " part " of it. I was polite and kind on the phone with her but expressed my concern and she replied with " youre just not cut out to own investment properties"... which was irrelevant to anything that had happened or was even said during all of it. She just again wanted to be rude to me , someone she doesn't even know and never even had a conversation with for no reason that I'm aware of. Let me reiterate again that the actual appraisal came in fine. I'm not bitter about that number. It actually came in 30,000 more than she told the renter so that was just absurd. I was treated terrible from the very beginning for no reason. I paid the lady, I was polite to her. She and I have yet to have a conversation where I was anything but nice to her. But I will NEVER use this company again. I will make sure anyone who listens hears how I was treated and I hope anyone looking for an independent appraisal will seek theirs elsewhere. read more

Today, I had a home appraisal done by Mrs. Wise and I must say she did an amazing job. She was very professional and her demeanor was wonderful. She was very knowledgeable as well. I would recommend her to anyone seeking a fair and unbiased, well researched appraisal. The Wiae isn't in their name for nothing!! The Millers' Smithsburg, MD read more

James M. Wise is the owner of this company. I am leaving this review so that no one else seeks this man for an appraisal. We recently sold our home in Adams, Co., Pennsylvania. This man James Wise performed the appraisal for our home and came back 22 thousand under what it was appraised by our appraiser. After further review we saw that his appraisal had been done with homes in a neighboring county where the taxes are much lower and the home values are lower. He was contacted by the agent and made aware of the mistake yet he refused to correct the problem. The bank was willing to have this redone correctly yet he refused, again costing us somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 thousand. We are going to file suit and this wills cost us money and I will also see what I will do to see that this man cannot practice in Pennsylvania as it clear that he does not have a clue as to how things work here. read more