Richard T Blum Appraisals

We have been looking for a house for a year now. We found the perfect house and everything seemed to go well until this Appraiser got involved. Appraisers are supposed to be objective and subjective and that will be his argument. That the value was calculated correctly.... HOWEVER this appraiser went a mile out of the area to get a low value of 108K on a house we were trying to purchase (listing price of 129K) when right down the street there were homes that closed at 130K. The bank was willing to come down to 117K (midpoint between 105 and 130), Then after the appraisal was done, there were two more homes that closed at 130K and 131K. just this past week....less than a block away, in the same subdivision. Our mortgage department felt that the argument had enough merit to be sent for reconsideration and the appraiser still would not budge. Without anything to gain, why would he? It would be a blow to his ego and his reputation to admit that he might not have taken everything into consideration, but it is obvious this man is not a man of integrity. And during Christmas time of all times of the year, the man yelled at people for questioning his appraisal. His argument, that we were in a declining market because a house closed OVER the listing price. How does that even make sense?? I hope if you have a choice you will not use this stubborn appraiser. Not only has he messed up our deal, this appraisal will affect anyone wanting to purchase this house for the next 6 months with an FHA loan. His Pride has gotten the best of his cloudy jugdement, and he should NOT be considered someone objective or subjective... which should be the rule of ethics for all appraisers. That's why banks don't do their own appraisals. Unfortunately being the owner of the company, he believes that he is the "be all say all..." and people like this should have that kind of decisionmaking authority taken away from them. Only fair people with sound judgement should be allowed to have that kind of power to affect the lives of so many people invovled in a single transaction.