This is just a small sample of the Appraisal services we can provide. Please contact us for further assistance. We do not do drive by inspections. We will do a 2055 form but only if we can inspect the entire property. We don't sell snake oil and we don't attempt to value a property without inspecting the entire property. We have numerous stories we can tell of properties that someone wanted a drive by only inspection. What we found after inspecting one property inside and outside, was radically different than the outside appearance from the street.

We were asked to do a drive by, exterior inspection only, on a home. We declined the order. Later the mortgage company ordered the appraisal with interior inspection. What looked like a 15 year old rancher, from the street, turned out to be a house that was built over 100 years ago from a torn down old school and old church.  The house had been vinyl sided (blue) and there was white mobile home type skirting around the crawl area, which appeared to be painted concrete blocks from the street.  When removing a piece of the vinyl underpinning and viewing under floor there was no foundation at all.  There were large stacked rocks and 5 cedar stumps holding the house up. When we got inside we discovered, 6' 6" ceilings, and by the placement of the walls, that the original structure was a farm house with a 'dog trot'. 

Now, for those too young to know what a dog trot is, it is a home that was built with two halves.  One half separated from the other half by an open hallway that ran the length of the house, from the full width front porch to the rear porch.   On one side was the living room and kitchen and on the other side were the bedrooms.  Homes were built this way to provide a thermal barrier between the kitchen area and the bedrooms.  In those days all of the cooking was with the use of a wood cook stove.  There was no air conditioning in those days and, the window fan had not been invented.  Most folks in rural areas didn't even have electricity. 

When the lender learned of the age, condition and foundation problems, they declined to make the loan.

I wonder how anyone could ever defend himself or herself on their value esimate, with a drive by only inspection, of a home like this one,  if challenged to do so, by their state licensing authority, or in court testimony!

By the way the hall was named the 'dog trot' because the dogs the family owned would lay there out of the sun during the middle of the day, and the owners would chase them away, only to have them trot back and lay down again. 

We hope you have enjoyed our story.  It is absolutely true.

We have a number of stories like this one, but I believe this is one of the very best examples of why we just don't do drive by work.