COTTINGHAM REALTY & APPRAISAL

It was a train wreck from the first call. My husband and I are both professionals. We live in the home we were buying, so we were the ones who kept having to take off work for things such as the appraisal. She scheduled with my husband for a date (appt. #1) that we could not be there, so he called her back within 10 minutes and rescheduled with her (appt. #2). When the appt date #1 arrived (the one we could not do) she called to confirm our appointment. When he told her she had rescheduled that with him she said she didn't know anything about rescheduling, it wasn't on her calendar, and she couldn't do the date she had scheduled. In fact, we'd have to wait another couple of weeks to get her there. We called the bank to complain and they scheduled for us (#3); however, when the date the bank scheduled with her arrived, she was a no-call / no-show for our appointment. The bank finally got another time set for us and, yes, this time she showed up.....an hour late.....and stayed all of 15 minutes to rapidly walk through the house snapping pictures with her cell phone. We timed her....no more than 15 minutes on the property, which is a 1920s. 3000 sq ft house on a fenced property with a detached garage. How she managed to produce a 40+ page appraisal is a joke. Actually, so was our lender, who we ended up firing. Our new lender was night-and-day difference and the mortgage loan process actually started to be handled as it should be - professionally. But, Ms. Cottingham again became an issue when the new lender discovered, first, that she had put an incomplete address on the appraisal. It took them over two weeks to even get ahold of her to get a corrected copy. We even tried to contact her and her voicemail box was full so we couldn't even leave her a message. Finally, on Friday before our Tuesday closing, the closer at the bank realized that not only has Ms. Cottingham put an incomplete address on the original appraisal documents, she had described a two-parcel property as only one parcel. It was Tuesday morning - the day of our closing - that our lender finally got a correct assessment from Ms. Cottingham. They nearly had to reschedule a closing that we had coordinated the schedules of 7 professionals (including a doctor and a private practice psychotherapist) to pull together.DEBBIE COTTINGHAM's work was haphazard and careless and I would never recommend her.

I reviewed the appraisal and found so many discrepancies. The appraisal company documented that all comparables are within 5 years of each other and no need for adjustments. The appraiser stated “No adjustments were necessary for a difference in effective age of less than five years”, but one of the comparables was 8 years older than the subject house. The subject property has a fence, but the appraiser did not note it and deducted value to other comparables that had a fence. The comparable sales used in the appraisal are outdated (10/1/10) and not even in close proximity (1.5 miles). I found three homes that were comparable and sold in the last four months. Two of the homes were in the same subdivision and another .5 miles from the subject property. The appraiser showed up to the house to take pictures for the report and was in a hurry to get out of there. The appraiser did not document all of the special features/ improvements in the report. The quality of the report does not reflect the true market value in the area.

A GOOD FAMILY RUN BUSINESS WITH A LOT OF KNOWLEDGE OF INDIANAPOLIS AND ITS SURROUNDING AREAS.