Solum & Associates

Update to the following is at the end. I explained that we were under time constraints and needed to get this done quickly. I was told they were only two weeks behind so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. It took a couple of weeks after I called their office before the appraiser actually called to set up an appointment to come out. It was over a week before she could come. So, the appointment was scheduled for a good three weeks after I made the initial contact with the office. Then, the day before she was supposed to come, she called and cancelled because she wanted to do something with her husband. I suggested one day after work the following week. She said she had to go to ball games that week. I finally got her to agree to come during lunch. It was obvious, though, by the way she acted, that she didn't want to do it then either. I told her it needed to be done quickly. We got a bill for the appraisal 3 or 4 weeks afterthe appraiser came out. I didn't, however, get a copy of the appraisal. I was shocked to get a bill without the paperwork. I asked my boss, who is a lawyer, about it and said I'd never heard of such a thing - billing a person before they could even see the appraisal. My sister called Solums and asked about the bill. She was told the work wasn't even done yet. I contacted them twice on their website asking the status of the appraisal. Finally got an answer and I was told that the person I spoke with didn't know and would contact the appraiser. I told her to let me know when it was done and I'd pay for the appraisal when they handed it over to me. I picked up the appraisal a week ago and found several errors. I had told her the septic system was over 45 years old, was no longer working properly and needed to be replaced. She wrote that the septic system was new. She appraised the property with two parcels that no longer belonged to Dad. The website said Null Null Null on the tax bills so it was obvious there was a change. I was informed about it so I called them and was told that another deed had been filed so this wasn't updated on the website yet. My sister had filed her deed that had been deeded to her over 20 years ago. The appraiser should have contacted the Register of Deeds office for the corrected information when she saw Null on the website page and I told them part of my sister's land was on it. The land that still belonged to Dad showed an assessed value of around $31,000. The appraiser valued it at $50,000. I was told they use fair market value. I own 20 acres behind Dad's property and the fair market value of my land was listed as $1400 LESS than the assessed value. I fail to see how the fair market value of Dad's 21 acres is $20,000 over the assessed value while my 20 acres is $1400 less. Something is definitely wrong here, and I don't think the appraiser knows her job. I contacted the company to tell them to fix the errors and the appraiser called me at work. All she wanted to do was fight with me. She said it took so long because they were waiting for me. That was ridiculous as I was waiting to hear that it was completed. My sister was told it wasn't done at the time they sent out the bill which was about a month after the appraiser came out. The appraiser said we were told at the time of the appraisal that the money had to be in before they'd give us the appraisal. That was untrue. We weren't told any such thing. Had we been told that, neither I nor my sister would have been surprised to get a bill without the appraisal attached to it. The appraisal continued to argue with me about that and other things. I have an excellent memory and since I have never heard of someone having to pay for services before receiving them, I certainly would have remembered that if I'd been told. She fussed about the fact that I'd asked her to come out after 5:00 in the evening and said she works 8 to 4. I was told by the bank (who uses this appraisal service) that the appraiser is supposed to accommodate my schedule. The initial appointment was supposed to be at 5:30, and she didn't complain about it then. When she was going to change the appointment, though, she didn't want to do it. In fact, when we were trying to set up a new date and time for her to come out, it appeared that she didn't want to come out at all. I gave her specific information about the house and she didn't include it in the appraisal. In fact, she wrote the opposite. She fought with me over the fact that I was not told we had to pay before getting the appraisal. She said it was done but they were waiting for me to get them the money. My sister was told that it wasn't complete and I was told that the secretary didn't know if it was done or not. The appraiser kept saying, "Yes, we TOLD you!" No, they didn't. I felt like she was either calling me a liar or trying to pick a fight with me because when I said I'd done something, she said no I hadn't, and it seemed that no matter what I said, she disputed it and said no that wasn't right. When I'd say yes it was, she would immediately respond with no it wasn't. The woman was very argumentative and unprofessional. If I'd known what a terrible experience this was going to be, I would have called someone else. I sent an email to the owner of the company about the errors in the appraisal and the bad experience I had with the appraiser. Once he has addressed these issues, I will consider whether any changes to this review will be made. The only reason the company did not get a D is because Cecile made an effort to help to get this straightened out and to make sure the owner was informed of the behavior of his appraiser. UPDATE - The owner of the company had been out of town when my complaints were issued, but when he learned of the problems. he contacted me, went out to the property on Friday after work and had a corrected appraisal to me by Monday afternoon. He was very helpful and went out of his way to make things right. He also stated he was going to address the issues with the woman who came out to appraise the property initially. I marked above that I would not use the company again because there is no way to say anything other than yes or no. I would use the company again if the owner did the appraisal. I would not use the appraiser who came out to the property initially. Had the owner been the original appraiser, I would have given the company all high marks.