the appraiser was here so was I

FYI: Since posting above, I have been informed that they are called "assessors" and not "appraisers" (doesn't change my story though).

gerardryan said:

Guy left a post-it. Showed up when the post-it said he would, right on time. Pleasant and polite, and done in less than 15 minutes. A complete non event.

Same here

steel said:

FYI: Since posting above, I have been informed that they are called "assessors" and not "appraisers" (doesn't change my story though).

In point of fact, they are information gatherers who pass their data on to the assessor who places the valuation on each property visited.

Just make sure that you are signing for the right house. He made a mistake and almost had me sign my neighbors. I pointed out that the picture did not match my house and he had to re-do the form before I could sign for the correct address.

Does anyone have the contact info for the assessors?  I can't locate the yellow post-it with the number so I can reschedule their visit.

Thanks.

I found it on the South Orange web site. If you live in Maplewood, you might check that web site.

kthnry said:

steel said:

Appraiser came to our house. He said "Well, the place is obviously well maintained but with no major renovations."

I said "Yeah, that's pretty much the look I was going for".

My appraiser said "Yes, this is definitely an unfinished basement."

Just wondering, do you have any walls in your basement?  I have two walls and carpet tiles in one room, but the exterior walls are painted cement block and the ceiling is not finished.  

Review the work carefully. I have an entirely unfinished basement, which was assessed as "finished." I also have 1.5 bathrooms, which were counted as "2.5." How they got two of five items wrong is beyond me, and now I have to leave work early to accommodate a return visit. Gah.

www.asinj.com

(888) 493-8530 between 10 and 4 M-F.

Ours came already. How do we see what they counted?

unixiscool said:

kthnry said:

steel said:

Appraiser came to our house. He said "Well, the place is obviously well maintained but with no major renovations."

I said "Yeah, that's pretty much the look I was going for".

My appraiser said "Yes, this is definitely an unfinished basement."

Just wondering, do you have any walls in your basement?  I have two walls and carpet tiles in one room, but the exterior walls are painted cement block and the ceiling is not finished.  

We have a wall, a semi-finished drop ceiling, and ceramic tiles in one room, and the assessor said that our basement was unfinished because we still have the cement walls exposed. He said you need a finished floor, ceiling and walls to have your basement  considered finished. 

sprout said:

Ours came already. How do we see what they counted?

There was a blue post-it on the door with notes about what the inspector guessed from inspecting the outside.

Ah... ours came inside, and spouse was here. I don't think we got anything from the inspector. 

If they didn't come in, then I realize they will overestimate.

We came home to both the yellow and blue tags since they hit us twice while we were away, although we need to have them back anyway since they got the bathroom and room count wrong (higher on both counts of course - guessing deliberate since we were on vaca), it would be helpful to understand the room ratings before they come back.  Anyone know what the different levels of quality are (e.g. Good, Average, etc.), I see good noted for the bathrooms and good for the kitchen and then average on the next line next to finished basement where it says overall condition, not sure if that's average for the house or the basement.  Is good the highest (i.e. the most expensive) or is there a higher and conversely a lower category than average.  Also is 1/2 story a finished attic, the blue note is very cryptic for something so important.

rbrooks1281 said:

We came home to both the yellow and blue tags since they hit us twice while we were away, although we need to have them back anyway since they got the bathroom and room count wrong (higher on both counts of course - guessing deliberate since we were on vaca), it would be helpful to understand the room ratings before they come back.  Anyone know what the different levels of quality are (e.g. Good, Average, etc.), I see good noted for the bathrooms and good for the kitchen and then average on the next line next to finished basement where it says overall condition, not sure if that's average for the house or the basement.  Is good the highest (i.e. the most expensive) or is there a higher and conversely a lower category than average.  Also is 1/2 story a finished attic, the blue note is very cryptic for something so important.

What motivation would they have to overestimate your room count?

To ensure you have to reschedule for the walk through or pay the maximum amount, it's very obvious that the exterior dimensions of the house haven't changed in 90+ years so to have both the # of rooms and bathrooms increase from the last appraisal (or any other previous appraisal) is absurd, maybe just sloppiness, but seems like more than a coincidence, same for coincidentally labeling bathrooms and the kitchen as good w/o seeing them. 

kthnry said:

rbrooks1281 said:

We came home to both the yellow and blue tags since they hit us twice while we were away, although we need to have them back anyway since they got the bathroom and room count wrong (higher on both counts of course - guessing deliberate since we were on vaca), it would be helpful to understand the room ratings before they come back.  Anyone know what the different levels of quality are (e.g. Good, Average, etc.), I see good noted for the bathrooms and good for the kitchen and then average on the next line next to finished basement where it says overall condition, not sure if that's average for the house or the basement.  Is good the highest (i.e. the most expensive) or is there a higher and conversely a lower category than average.  Also is 1/2 story a finished attic, the blue note is very cryptic for something so important.

What motivation would they have to overestimate your room count?

rbrooks1281 said:

To ensure you have to reschedule for the walk through or pay the maximum amount, it's very obvious that the exterior dimensions of the house haven't changed in 90+ years so to have both the # of rooms and bathrooms increase from the last appraisal (or any other previous appraisal) is absurd, maybe just sloppiness, but seems like more than a coincidence, same for coincidentally labeling bathrooms and the kitchen as good w/o seeing them. 

kthnry said:

rbrooks1281 said:

We came home to both the yellow and blue tags since they hit us twice while we were away, although we need to have them back anyway since they got the bathroom and room count wrong (higher on both counts of course - guessing deliberate since we were on vaca), it would be helpful to understand the room ratings before they come back.  Anyone know what the different levels of quality are (e.g. Good, Average, etc.), I see good noted for the bathrooms and good for the kitchen and then average on the next line next to finished basement where it says overall condition, not sure if that's average for the house or the basement.  Is good the highest (i.e. the most expensive) or is there a higher and conversely a lower category than average.  Also is 1/2 story a finished attic, the blue note is very cryptic for something so important.

What motivation would they have to overestimate your room count?

They probably want to give you motivation to have them come back so that they can properly assess the condition of the interior of the house.  Just because rooms aren't added doesn't mean that there haven't been interior renovations that would increase the assessment.

A casual glance through any of my basement windows and a count of plumbing stacks would have done the trick, in my case. The two post-its were left on the same day, while there were two adults in the house.  There was no credible attempt made to inspect the interior.

j_r said:

A casual glance through any of my basement windows and a count of plumbing stacks would have done the trick, in my case. The two post-its were left on the same day, while there were two adults in the house.  There was no credible attempt made to inspect the interior.

No excuse for all these cases where people were home and they didn't even bother to ring the bell before leaving the post-it.  (But I have my suspicions that these are temporary workers and the more visits they generate, the more they will get paid before the job ends.  It's only speculation on my part, though.)

If I'm home when they come, my dog will let me know.

I think I already wrote this above, but on my post it they noted that I had three bathrooms.  My house is less than 800 sq ft.  Where I would even fit three bathrooms is beyond me.

j_r said:

Review the work carefully. I have an entirely unfinished basement, which was assessed as "finished." I also have 1.5 bathrooms, which were counted as "2.5." How they got two of five items wrong is beyond me, and now I have to leave work early to accommodate a return visit. Gah.

www.asinj.com

(888) 493-8530 between 10 and 4 M-F.

During the last re-eval in 2010 I looked over the form and caught that the guy gave me a driveway that I didn't own.  

relx said:

unixiscool said:

kthnry said:

steel said:

Appraiser came to our house. He said "Well, the place is obviously well maintained but with no major renovations."

I said "Yeah, that's pretty much the look I was going for".

My appraiser said "Yes, this is definitely an unfinished basement."

Just wondering, do you have any walls in your basement?  I have two walls and carpet tiles in one room, but the exterior walls are painted cement block and the ceiling is not finished.  

We have a wall, a semi-finished drop ceiling, and ceramic tiles in one room, and the assessor said that our basement was unfinished because we still have the cement walls exposed. He said you need a finished floor, ceiling and walls to have your basement  considered finished. 

Yes, but this just means that you can have a % of finished; it's not all or nothing as it was explained to me. Ours was considered 35% finished, I think.

He said that there are no records from "last reval"--it's all "fresh start". we both concurred that's "interesting".  

When he was complete he asked me to sign his tablet. I then went through every item, and there was an inconsistency (I'm careful, don't want to say mistake) so I rec that you all proof read before signing. and if you were not asked to sign, you really should follow up.

My guy was nice, had fun prada sunglasses, decent attitude, asked to walk around outside a few times, but I have odd property...my dog didn't love him which always raises an eyebrow from me, but it's over.  (my dog loves the early pea pod guy, all but one WM guy, and NOT the alarm guy, ironically. )

Starsong:  The person who inspected my property said that something that was noted in the last inspection was unchanged.  There must have been a prior record in the file for him to be able to say this.  Could it be that no interior inspection was made of your home during the last revaluation?

Got the sticker. He explained the next day,after arriving promptly, that the first visit was exterior only,verifying length and width from info card. Second visit was interior to verify info and assign a condition grade. Painless. 

What area of town are they in now?

Starsong said:

He said that there are no records from "last reval"--it's all "fresh start". we both concurred that's "interesting".  

When he was complete he asked me to sign his tablet. I then went through every item, and there was an inconsistency (I'm careful, don't want to say mistake) so I rec that you all proof read before signing. and if you were not asked to sign, you really should follow up.

My guy was nice, had fun prada sunglasses, decent attitude, asked to walk around outside a few times, but I have odd property...my dog didn't love him which always raises an eyebrow from me, but it's over.  (my dog loves the early pea pod guy, all but one WM guy, and NOT the alarm guy, ironically. )

Shut I signed but I did not see what he selected. Can I see what they selected anywhere or am I stuck? Wondering if he chose better ratings than he should have because I made him walk up the hill in 90+ degree weather to come inside. 

we also signed without a close read. Anyone know if there is a place to see what we signed?

Starsong said:

He said that there are no records from "last reval"--it's all "fresh start". we both concurred that's "interesting".  

When he was complete he asked me to sign his tablet. I then went through every item, and there was an inconsistency (I'm careful, don't want to say mistake) so I rec that you all proof read before signing. and if you were not asked to sign, you really should follow up.

My guy was nice, had fun prada sunglasses, decent attitude, asked to walk around outside a few times, but I have odd property...my dog didn't love him which always raises an eyebrow from me, but it's over.  (my dog loves the early pea pod guy, all but one WM guy, and NOT the alarm guy, ironically. )

The last reval they taped off the house and assessory buildings incl overhang areas and porchs. They did no such thing this time which leads me to believe that info is on the record cards/file. If it was a fresh start, they would need to spend more than 5 minutes per residence.

onceinawhile said:

we also signed without a close read. Anyone know if there is a place to see what we signed?

Ask him/her to show you the report, which is composed from dropdown menus on an iPad. (I just did that a few minutes ago and caught another small error.)  If the report has been completed, you might be able to get a copy by calling.

He specifically told me there was no record of the houses (don't THINK he meant mine specifically, as he commented on how he would have done things differently..) and he spent more than 5 minutes but less than 15, went from basement to 3rd counting etc. In and out but counting each as he went.