Complaint For the Kansas Appraisal Board

I was the selling agent on a property located at 7637 SW Cedar Lane in Augusta, KS. The listing agent was with Prudential Dinning Beard. The buyers where paying cash for the property with a contract amount of $370,000 to close on January 20, 2010. The buyers did make the contract subject to the home appraising. I felt it was important because I thought they where paying too much for the property. When I did a comparative market analysis I came in with a value of $335,000 to $345,000.

I gave the buyers a list of appraisers familiar with Butler County. They pick an appraiser who went out to the property and did an appraisal that came in at $325,000, which I thought was low and so did everyone else. The seller was not lowering his price to this amount. The buyer offered to pay $350,000. Then the seller wanted to get an appraisal, the listing agent inform me that she knew an appraiser that would bring it in at contract. I wanted a fair appraisal and made this very clear. The listing agent picks an appraiser for the sellers. She gave him a copy of my buyer’s appraisal and a copy of our contract, which is wrong. I was not happy about this and informed the buyer. I also tried to call the appraiser who would not call me back. The seller of course paid for the appraisal. His appraisal came in at $371,000, imagine that. I don’t believe this appraisal would ever go through underwriting at a bank.

My buyers closed on this property for their own personal reasons. They did not believe it was worth what they paid. They where very discouraged at this entire process. I personally put 85% of our market problems with the lenders who gave out the high risk loans. Now my opinion of that has changed. Appraisers get 25% and lenders get the rest. If everyone did there job and did not think about themselves we would not be in this mess.

For the public: Your home is worth what you can find a willing and able buyer to pay for it and not a penny more. Realtors know what buyers are looking for; appraisers just try to match the contract to get the deal to go through. They get paid and the bank of course makes money.

Regards,
Candace L. Kunkel
Broker/Owner, GRI, CRI