John F. Swindell

Met at agreed upon time. Sent appraisal the next week. No problems

unknown

unknown

My mother passed away in March 2012, leaving me 50% of her home, trustee for the other 50%, and estate executor. For those of you who have been through this life experience you know there is an unknown number of tasks/issues that have to be attended to. One of them is to get the and quot;fair market valueand quot; of the house you just inherited - which I didn't remember. Two things I did do was 1) before removing my mothers possessions I took photographs of every room from several different angles and 2) I kept a detailed list of all repairs and improvements I either contracted or did myself. When the house was ready to go on the market I searched Angie's List for an appraiser familiar with the area. Up popped John Swindell with five recent reviews all with an and quot;Aand quot; grade. I contacted John on a Tuesday, liked the way he talked, asked if he could provide a retrospective appraisal (he said he could if I had a list of repairs and improvements), and setup an appointment the following Friday at 10am. John was on time. Easy to talk to. Took his own measurements (didn't use public documents). Made his own drawings of the house plan and asked questions a potential buyer might ask. Upon reviewing the and quot;beforeand quot; photos John noticed several cracks in the drywall. I explained a soil settlement problem and that in Dec. 2009 I contracted an engineering firm to re-level and stabilize the house with helical piers and lots of concrete. I also indicated I contracted the drywall repair and described the techniques they used for the repairs and that I had not seen any new cracks. On the following Wednesday I received emails with attached PDF files containing very detailed reports (19 pages on the current appraisal). Information of similar houses including sale price and pictures in the vicinity used to determine market value were included. For the retrospective appraisal John used the repair and improvements list, before photos, and researched comparable houses that were sold around the date of my mother's death.

Mr. Swindell arrived on time and was very professional, thorough, and accommodating. He completed the appraisal quickly and gave us the report within a week. We would recommend him for future work.

He returned my call immediately and he scheduled the appraisal inspection with my real estate agent in two days. Mr. Swindell is also a real estate broker and he advised me of several things that I was totally unaware of- i.e., things my agent should have known. The report was very thorough and gave me the information I needed to make an informed decision as to whether to proceed or not.

I called John on a Friday. He came out promptly on Monday and did a thorough inspection of my property. He provided what I feel is a fair opinion of the value of my home, with sufficient documentation to support his conclusions. I recomment John unconditionallly!

I called John and he was out within two business days. He was prompt, professional and thorough. He performed a fair and accurate appraisal and I would use him again.

He does not go by a DBA. His standard stood out to me. He was not trying to please the customer as many appraisers I found in the past did. He gave me the figure that I was looking for. He is an outright guy; he said that was what the figure was based on his research of sales in the area. I have an unusual property and John knocked himself out as far as I am concerned. I valued his truthfulness. He is highly recommended.