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Black CA couple's home appraisal value goes up $500K after changing family photos to a white family

Morrison71

Morrison71

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Nov 10, 2006
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abc7news.com

Black California couple lowballed by $500K in home appraisal, believe race was a factor

The Austin family sunk $400,000 into renovating their home, but were stunned when they barely gained any value during the appraisal process. When they had a white woman pose as the homeowner, that all changed.
abc7news.com abc7news.com
The Austin family sunk $400,000 into renovating their home, but were stunned when they barely gained any value during the appraisal process. When they had a white woman pose as the homeowner, that all changed—by half a million dollars.
 
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Morrison71 said:
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abc7news.com

Black California couple lowballed by $500K in home appraisal, believe race was a factor

The Austin family sunk $400,000 into renovating their home, but were stunned when they barely gained any value during the appraisal process. When they had a white woman pose as the homeowner, that all changed.
abc7news.com abc7news.com
The Austin family sunk $400,000 into renovating their home, but were stunned when they barely gained any value during the appraisal process. When they had a white woman pose as the homeowner, that all changed—by half a million dollars.
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This country is so ****ing despicable.
 
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Lets see both of the appraisal's and see what is different. It is entirely possible that the first person just sucked at their job.

I have substantial damage from the Derecho last year, and the initial appraiser was horrible at his job leaving out numerous parts of the building in his inspection.

There are just numerous people out there in every industry that are just not good at their jobs. I am sure you all know who i am talking about in your workplace or industry. Of course there is a chance as well that the person who did the first appraisal is racist, but I would bet they just don't know what they are doing.
 
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isufan21 said:
Lets see both of the appraisal's and see what is different. It is entirely possible that the first person just sucked at their job.

I have substantial damage from the Derecho last year, and the initial appraiser was horrible at his job leaving out numerous parts of the building in his inspection.

There are just numerous people out there in every industry that are just not good at their jobs. I am sure you all know who i am talking about in your workplace or industry. Of course there is a chance as well that the person who did the first appraisal is racist, but I would bet they just don't know what they are doing.
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Or the second appraiser sucked and vastly overvalued the house.

Either way, I don't see how you get that far of a spread from actual COMPS.

That's what the bank wants to see.
 
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Brian_Fantana said:
SMH you believe such an idiotic story. So you actually believe some “agent” who works on commission racially profiled a couple and listed their property 500k less?
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GFY - I absolutely believe an appraisal for a black family could come in significantly lower than the same home for a white family. Ignoring that this type of racism exists is one of the reasons it still exists. Wake up.
 
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Why were they getting their property appraised AFTER they spent $400k in renovations? It should have been appraised prior to renovations if they were getting a home equity loan to pay the renovations. Renovations often don't return what you pay in increase in value, but the appraised value came out $100k more. They get upset about a low valuation and push for a second appraisal and think, hey, maybe if we have a white friend come white the place up, we can get a higher appraisal. When it comes back $500k higher, they are angry because now instead of too low, it is too high.

If they wanted a home equity loan, then they should be thrilled. Yet, they are upset about that being too high. Hey, lets go to local news and see if they want to make a story of it. Local news does an article that is mostly not about this couple, their facts or how they were done wrong.

This particular story of the couple makes no sense. Instead, the story is used as a particular base to introduce overall issues about discrimination in housing and wealth inequality because of race.

I know there is discrimination in many forms and think it should be acknowledged and addressed, but this "story" is doing a disservice to the cause. Investigative journalism is a lost art.
 
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Gonolz said:
Why were they getting their property appraised AFTER they spent $400k in renovations? It should have been appraised prior to renovations if they were getting a home equity loan to pay the renovations. Renovations often don't return what you pay in increase in value, but the appraised value came out $100k more. They get upset about a low valuation and push for a second appraisal and think, hey, maybe if we have a white friend come white the place up, we can get a higher appraisal. When it comes back $500k higher, they are angry because now instead of too low, it is too high.

If they wanted a home equity loan, then they should be thrilled. Yet, they are upset about that being too high. Hey, lets go to local news and see if they want to make a story of it. Local news does an article that is mostly not about this couple, their facts or how they were done wrong.

This particular story of the couple makes no sense. Instead, the story is used as a particular base to introduce overall issues about discrimination in housing and wealth inequality because of race.

I know there is discrimination in many forms and think it should be acknowledged and addressed, but this "story" is doing a disservice to the cause. Investigative journalism is a lost art.
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They're pissed because they knew the first appraisal was too low and the 2nd confirmed it. Likely they are applying for a loan since they requested the appraisal through their bank.
 
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I feel for these people in this situation as it’s the people in the industry that are either racist or one of two things, really smart due to years of experience in knowing the market or really dumb that have no clue about things that are very important in the valuation process. More than not, it’s the appraiser that is the issue due to their lack of knowledge and understanding of a lot of variables that go into the home value.

We built a custom home on a nice piece of land a few years ago and had a nice appraisal on close then wanted to open a HELOC due to the equity in the home. The guy that came out after getting hired by the national bank that bought our loan from a local bank after close because they didn’t want to hold the jumbo note that we didn’t want them to sell was young, didn’t know anything about the custom builder and craftsmanship, didn’t think about the land valuation and as I talked to him, I knew we were in trouble as he didn’t look at any of those features for the value. We got our appraisal back and it was $175,000 less than what we paid to build the dang thing, no mention of the craftsmanship, no mention of our lot being close to an acre backing up to a nature preserve, with comps on a quarter acre backing up to other houses. I was incensed as there is no way to build the same house due to the current cost of products needed to compete the project.

Long story short, called the national mortgage holder and told them to go F themselves, that we were moving the business to a company that understood valuations of custom homes and did exactly that. We moved the mortgage and got a valuation that was $160,000 above our build price and opened the HELOC too. The lady that came out to do the valuation knew right away about the quality of the builder, the craftsmanship, and land that couldn’t be matched to any other comp.

It could be racism for this couple in San Fran area but more than not, it was a dumb lady that has no business being an appraiser and should be called out for her lack of knowledge of the industry in these types of situations by her employer or the mortgage companies that hire her. They should look into all of her previous assessments, as I’m sure you will see a pattern of low assessments due to her not knowing the costs associated in the housing industry that truly affect the home owner in the home valuation process.
 
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There have been several stories of this happening over the years. At the very least, the first appraisal was a terrible appraisal. In that area, for a home to go up only 15% or so / $100k over the last 4 years even without the renovations, is VERY suspect. Add on top of that the renovations and it's an astoundingly bad appraisal. There is always the chance that renovations were terribly done and detract from the value, but the 2nd appraiser didn't see it that way.
 
Interesting story, in this particular occasion there could be multiple factors in play including or excluding racism. Since 2008 and the overhaul of appraisal standards it is damn near impossible to get an apparaiser to adjust any appraisal.
so during first appraisal the older white woman could have seen the family was black and used lower comps or she is just a very conservative appraiser and used the comps she thought most aligned withthe value.
the next appraiser likely had new comps with 4 weeks worth of new data and chose the ones he felt aligned with the value.

long story short it is possible the first appraiser used lower comps because they were black owners and the second used higher comps because they though or the comps used were based on appraisal style conservative vs loose and race played no factor.
easily proven argument by releasing the two appraisals so we could view the comps
 
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BelemNole said:
Racism is over, haven’t you heard? Something something black male crime statistics.
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Not to mention the 80 years of disparities and discrimination regarding realtors, housing policies, mortgages etc.

Just sick that people can be so evil
 
Kakaw83 said:
Lol, lighten up francis
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socially isolated, hyper-political people that are super active on social media because it’s their only form of human engagement are a huge problem in this country. It’s how the 5% extremists at both ends get attention and drive their ideological narrative.

Then that guy has the balls to bitch about the condition of the country. Rich.
 
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Is it normal for an appraiser to meet the homeowner and view the inside of the house? That seems odd to me. I bought a house and have refinanced and I never met an appraiser and don't think they actually went into the house before I bought it. They just asked/confirmed info about the size, age and condition of the house. I have never had anyone tell me that an appraiser was in their house. I thought the appraisers just use information provided about the house and then use comps and market analysis to determine appraised value.
 
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