The Zillow of Bay Area Appraisers! Yavino-young came highly recommended and charges accordingly. When I asked why their fees were so high (20% higher than anyone else), I was told it was because of the extensive knowledge their appraisers have of the area and the amount of research they do. Houses in the East Bay can be difficult to appraise, one house may have jaw dropping views while the place next door has no view at all, so looking at a website like Zillow can be deceiving and inaccurate. We were told that Y-Y's appraiser grew up in the neighborhood and has been doing appraisals locally for many years. This was an important part in our decision to pay the excessive fee...what a mistake that turned out to be.
We finally got the appraisal almost four weeks later (after we were told two). When I mentioned this, Y-Y's response was 'it's busy, delays are inevitable'. Funny, their wasn't any 'inevitable delay' when the appraiser showed up two days after my initial call to look at the house and collect a check on the spot...
And by that time it seemed the appraiser must have completely forgotten what our house looked like. The comps were so bad I had to go look at every one myself, something the appraiser at Y-Y obviously didn't do. As an example, if we had the most beautiful, luxurious olympic swimming pool, house #1comp would read 'this house has a superior pool so I've deducted $40,000 to compensate for that'. When I looked at the house it didn't even have a pool. House #2 states 'although this house doesn't have a pool it is in a better location because you can walk to the community pool so no adjustment in price is warranted'. Huh? House #3 'has a similar pool...' Looked at that one and it only has a hot tub.
The appraisal was so bad it was obvious Y-Y's local man didn't even bother to look at the comps as he drove by them on his way to work everyday. Seems all he did was look at Zillow's website to come up with his appraisal. When I brought these points up his response was simply that he takes their reputation (and my money) seriously. In fairness, he did offer to go to the trouble of 'pulling the file' if I wanted (while not bothering to address my complaints), not wanting to wait another 4 weeks we hired someone else. I also brought this to the attention of his boss, as did my realtor. Apparently she takes Y-Y's reputation seriously as well, or I assume so because she didn't even bother to respond...
So if you are looking for someone to come by quickly to pick up your check, you've found 'em. But if you are looking for a fair, accurate and timely appraisal at an honest price, try Deena Love, can't recommend her highly enough. read more