Barkley Appraisal

Appraisal order submitted via a 3rd party real estate financial services company (LandSafe). Mr. Barkley was about the 6th appraiser contacted (all others had refused to travel to the location-- the remote rural town of Stanley, Idaho). Mr. Barkley agreed to do the appraisal and originally scheduled the work for Sept. 13, 2010. The fee was $475 and was prepaid to LandSafe. Because the approved lock on my loan was close to expiring, a request was made (through LandSafe) to move the appraisal to an earlier date. No guarantee was made the date could be changed. Sept. 7, 2010- I received a direct call from Mr. Barkley while I was on a business trip in Florida. He indicated that he wanted to do the appraisal the following day and asked "Are you going to be there?" I explained to him where I was and that I could not be there. I told him that I was renting the house temporarily and that, despite the extremely short notice, I would ask one of my renters to be at the house to let him in. Sept. 8, 2010- The appraisal was completed. One of my renters (the only police officer for the area) was able to let Mr. Barkley in the house. Sept. 10, 2010- Mr. Barkley's report was completed and submitted to the Boise mortgage company (Guild Mortgage). The mortgage company forwarded the appraisal to me for review. Sept. 11-12, 2010- I reviewed the appraisal. It was replete with a large number of factual errors as well as omissions. In his information sources, he listed the "Chief of Police" (presumably, my renter!) and a "store clerk". I spent 4 hours cataloguing his errors and omissions. Sept. 13, 2010-- I contacted my agent at the mortgage company. She and I were both shocked at both the very low appraisal figure as well as the errors and omissions catalogued. My protests were submitted to the mortgage company. Sept. 14-16, 2010- The appraiser submitted a revised appraisal with some changes based on my review; however, several omissions and errors remained that he did not change. Because the appraisal met the financial needs of the loan and we were running out of time, I did not submit additional protests. Sept. 17, 2010. The Senior Underwriter at Guild Mortgage denied the loan (despite a rapid original approval by Fannie Mae) because the appraisal was declared "Unacceptable". The main items that were unacceptable were (1) the comparisons were too old, and (2) the information sources used were unacceptable and apparently fell below the USPAP standards. These comments were taken directly from her email. The Senior Underwriter refused to change her mind despite loud protests by my agent at Guild Mortgage. I did not receive the loan because of substandard work on the part of this appraiser. He was still paid his full fee, and I apparently cannot have that returned.