I’m late getting here. Really sorry to hear about your issues, and I’m very sorry that you had to deal w/ what sounds like is a very unethical agent.

In the future, make sure to use a good buyer’s or listing agent in your transactions. The keyword here is good – use someone who comes with plenty of recommendations.

Since there is probably not a lot you can do about this – one way that might make things better is to make informed choices when you go to sell the house. I’m sure you will ask more questions, especially up front, about the process.

It’s not that I have to have the money back, although who couldn’t use it, it is really the sense of wrongness and wanting justice. I have talked to bunches of real estate agents who disliked the sellers agent and would not deal with him. Additionally, the fact that he invited my home inspector over to his house for beers when I stepped out of the house to take a phone call was downright dirty.

Thankfully in that case the home inspector told me about it later and said he won’t work for that agent because he doesn’t trust him. So who did that leave me to trust? Just my own agent.

Well, thank you for listening to me vent!

Out of curiosity, why does the appraiser need to see the contract? The contract has nothing to do with the value of the house!

Sometimes it is not as cut and dry as the appraiser just changing a number to make the loan, other times it is.

The appraiser is required to analyze the contract (the entire contract). If the appraiser has the contract they will know the sales price.

I really do believe that the value of a property is best expressed as a range rather than a single number but the forms appraisers are required to use call for A number.

The only reason I brought this whole thing up after 3 years was because I saw Countrywide (my lender) being sued for tampering with the appraisers and didn’t realize this could happen.

John, I’m a real estate agent but I am also a certified residential appraiser (although I’m not currently appraising).

One thing you can do is visit http://mortgagefraudwatchlist.org/

As an appraiser and an agent – I believe that it is very difficult to come to an exact value on a house – 3 different buyers can come up with 3 different prices that they are willing to pay. The difference in your case is less than 5% of the sales price – a number within reason — however doesn’t mean that you should not have this investigated.
The appraiser should not have spoken with anyone but the lender as in mortgage transactions the lender is technically the client. Rules keep getting tighter in this regard but there is a lot of pressure on appraisers to “hit the number”.