July 31, 2004

Complaint / Real Estate Appraiser

Filed against Teresa M Cota

Colorado Board of Real Estate Appraisers
1900 Grant St, #600
Denver, CO 80203
Attn: Enforcement

This is a complaint filed against appraiser Teresa M Cota, Colorado license number AL40019310.

Subject Property: 2643 E 90th Pl, Thornton, CO 80229

In support of the complaint, I state as follows:

Subject property was listed for sale 9/30/03 asking price $179,900. The property closed on 11/03/03 for $184,000. MLS reports a seller concession of $12,500 for the subject property.

The effective date of the appraisal is 10/20/03, and the signature date is 10/24/03. Page number 1 of the appraisal report states that loan charges/concessions to be paid by seller are “NA”. Page number 4 of the appraisal report states “No known concessions were made that affect the comparables sales price”.

The appraisal report states that the contract price is $182,000. The appraised value is $184,000. Presumably when the buyer and seller found out that the appraised value was $2,000 above contract (between 10/24/03 and 11/03/03), they modified the contract for the purpose of increasing the loan amount.

Under USPAP Standards Rule 1-5(a) the Appraiser has a duty to analyze the contract and listing, and as stated in the comment section of USPAP Standards Rule 2-2(a)(ix), the Appraiser has a duty to disclose the summary of the results of this analysis. In this case, the analysis was inadequate, and the disclosure was either inadequate or just plain wrong (misleading).

Comp #2 MLS reported a seller concession of $10,000 – it sold for $3,000 above asking price. Not disclosed, and not adjusted in the sales grid.

Comp #4 MLS reported a seller concession of $9,500. Not disclosed and not adjusted in the sales grid.

Comp #5 MLS reported a seller concession of $2,945 – it sold for $2,100 above asking price. Not disclosed and not adjusted in the sales grid.

Comp #6 MLS reported a seller concession of $8,993. Not disclosed and not adjusted in the sales grid.

The appraisal says no seller concession for the subject property, which is contradicted by the MLS listing which reports a $12,500 seller concession.

The “sold” information does not get input into MLS until after the sale closes, so it was not available to the appraiser. However, at a minimum, the appraisal report should have disclosed that the contract price was $2,100 (or $4,100) above asking price. Did the appraiser review a copy of the sales contract? The report does not say. In any event, the listing info was available to the appraiser, should have been analyzed and should have been disclosed. The most likely scenario is that the appraisal report failed to disclose a $12,500 seller concession for the subject property.

Philip G Rice
11268 E Linvale Dr
Aurora, CO 80014
720-282-3376
phil.rice@mkgappraisal.com

Attachments:

Appraisal Report – 23 pages
Subject MLS Listing and Listing History – 2 pages
Comp #1 MLS listing – 1 page
Comp #2 MLS listing – 1 page
Comp #3 MLS listing and Listing History – 2 pages
Comp #4 MLS listing – 1 page
Comp #5 MLS listing and Listing History – 2 pages
Comp #6 MLS listing – 1 page

Navigate: home / site map / Skippy List