Did you know 1 in 5 real estate contracts get cancelled due to appraisals?! I'm in a deal now where the purchase price is $550k, but the appraiser used 300k and 800k comps. Seems like there is no rhyme or reason! There are indeed some fine appraisers out there who take there job seriously. However,  I'm noticing a new crop of lazy appraisers who breeze in fast and crank out lackidasical reports, which wreck utter havoc on sellers, buyers, agents, loan brokers, etc! They do a sloppy job and leave it to us to clean up their mess! But do they care? Heck, no. They got paid and have moved on to another house. No skin off their back!  AGBeat quotes Mike Evans, the former president of the American Society of Appraisers, who says, “Some guy blows in from 300 miles away and grabs three comps that may not be in the right area, and leaves.” It's an epidemic!

If you get a lemon of an appraisal, try these remedies I filmed for ehow.com:
Click Read More to see Video Transcript
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I'm really enjoying interacting with LogoTV viewers about their real estate/design probelms. Another LogoTV viewer pops Hermanity a question:

QUESTION: We offered $600k on our dream house, but it appraised for $590k. What to do? 
ANSWER: You can 
1)  invoke your appraisal contingency & walkaway from the deal
2) convince seller to reduce price by $10k 
3) bring in the $10k yourself to bridge the gap. 

BOTTOM LINE: If this is truly your dream home, the place you will live in til the day you die,  then what is $10k in the grand scheme of life? Besides, amortized over 30 yrs, you're paying a few dollars more per month. Just sayin'!
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I've heard of hellish HOA's but this takes the cake! After becoming mute & partly paralyzed serving our country in Iraq in 2008, a non-profit  named Homes For Our Troops wanted to build Sean Gittens a home. Nice gesture right? (I mean, the man practically sacrificed his life for his country.) Well,  apparently not, per the HOA!

The Knob Hill  (aka Snob Hill) Homeowners Association allegedly blocked construction over a litany of flimsy excuses like the house was too small, or required paperwork was incomplete,  or most disturbingly that Gittens' house would "drag down the value of their homes."  I don't know what is going on here (Racism? Classism? Veteranism?) , but this soldier put his life on the line for us and all this HOA cares about are their property value?! 

Read the full story here on AOL.
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Admit it, everyone has checked out their home's value (or your ex-spouse's house, if you are nosy like me)  on real estate valuation sites like Zillow.com. But is it a good substitute for  a real  appraisal?  Hmmmm....
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