Residential Appraisal Corp

I had an appraisal scheduled with Mr. Sapotichne and through the court to take place. He told me to contact his secretary Karen if I had questions. I did. Mr. Sapotichne backed out of the appraisal the very last minute because I had questions. He advised me normally, " he invoices, does the appraisal and no further communication with the customer is ever made. Sounds to me that he could care less about the customer and more about the money. Caveat Emptor. Additionally and based upon what I had read below, it seems to be true about the sloth part.

Disappointing is a gross understatement. The golden shaft is more like it. I just read the one other review by Nigel W. and the exact same thing happened to me. I expected a licensed appraiser, but instead they sent an incompetent sloth. We had a fair market appraisal done by an experienced reputable realtor who rated our home at 295,000. He came into our home, stood in the middle of the kitchen and dining room, took 2 pictures, took a couple of pictures outside and left. He was carrying a portfolio of a previous appraisal done 9 years ago and basically used those numbers and appraised our home at 180,000. When he couldn't find homes comparable to ours within the designated area, he used homes in a rundown area that were old and in poor repair and also gave them a much higher rating than ours. Our home looks like it did the day we bought it and it is in a beautiful more affluent area with a higher tax base. Needless to say, our portion of the appraisal was non-refundable when the deal fell through because of the sham that we were subjected to. We are now stuck with this scam for four months. Not only can I not afford to flush hundreds of dollars, I fear that if I try to re-apply for a reverse mortgage, I will get the same idiot again. He had an arrogant attitude and dismissed any information my husband tried to give him. I wonder if he is somebody's relative who couldn't get a job anywhere else and the company is stuck with him. As far as expertise and professionalism, it is non-existent.

I would suggest avoiding this company at all costs!! I feel that I got a very unfair appraisal from this company. For starters they came in $25,000-35,000 below the average appraisal/value on my street. A mere 2 months ago, a less appealing house on my street sold for $28,000 more then their appraisal price on my property. This appraiser also used the cheapest houses on other streets in his comparables which seemed to have major issues affecting their value. I found this appraisal to be very subjective and arbitrary to put it mildly. TELL YOUR MORTGAGE BROKER AND OR BANK THAT YOU WILL NOT ACCEPT AN APPRAISEL FROM THIS COMPANY!!!! APPARENTLY THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND PROPERTY VALUES IN NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP!!!!!!