Dean A Stern

Little Exp., Bad Comps, Unprofessional AVOID
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by Consumer111, Jun. 16, 2014

During the buying process we switched from a conventional loan to an FHA loan. We'd already done an appraisal with the first lender, but the second required their own, so we paid for that as well. The second appraiser was Dean Stern.  He charged $100 more than the first appraiser, and returned a product that was shoddy and bespoke laziness. Since he lives in Sacramento, I expected him to have better knowledge of the neighborhoods; the comp sales were twice as old as those done in the first appraisal, one of which was 7 months old and one entire level of the property was unlivable and had to be gutted after the sale (it is now being sold for 3x the sale price), all of which wasn't taken into consideration with adjustments. The other comps were outside of the neighborhood and 2x as far as those used in the first appraisal. Besides location and age of sale, he also skipped over homes that would have been better in re to age, maintenance, etc. He listed linoleum where none exists (tile in the bathrooms) and didn't list the wood floors. He missed an entire bathroom and the second lot listed on the contract!! How do you do that if you had actually read the contract? Let alone the listing for the home?? All of this added up to 20k less than the asking price, which everyone involved agreeed the home is worth. After rebutting the appraisal, he refused to even consider revising it and was "rude" and "aggressive" with my agent.

I would also add, that a quick search of his company showed a Facebook page newly created as of August 2013, with postings from friends stating, "It's about time you got a job!!!" The company was started by a family member, so not only did he not start the company, but the only place that would hire him was family. Says a lot--I wish lenders would do a quick Google search before hiring!!! Thankfully our lender was on-board and paid for another appraisal.
AVOID!!!

* this reviewer has be with this appraiser for <6 months
* this reviewer had 1 - 2 dentists before.
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