In October 1998, I requested an appraisal of my home, financed by World, to determine if the PMI (private mortgage insurance) could be removed. Since I work in a real estate office, I was able to run the comparables and felt confident that it would appraise at $309,000, the amount needed to make my loan-to-value fall below 80%.

Much to my surprise, in early December, upon calling the Texas office, I was told it appraised at $285,000. I requested a copy of the appraisal and received it 3 weeks later. On January 20, 1999, I replied with a request to appeal the appraisal. My reasons were that

  • they used a home sale for one of two of the exact same home models that was $22,500 below the other;
  • another comparable had 500 sq. ft. more living space while there were 5 comparables within 200 sq. ft. in size of mine;
  • it was obvious the lowest comparables available were used.

In early February 1999, I was informed that the Appraisal Manager was sticking by the $285,000 appraisal because

  • my property is not in a PUD (planned unit development) and most of the comparables I provided were, and
  • I couldn't compare my house to homes on the other side of a particular road in my community which is 1/2 mile away.

Even after calling again and requesting this be put in writing, it has not been.

Realtors that I work with have pointed out that there are higher selling comparable properties that were either not in PUDs or the PUDs had no amenities, i.e., pool. No realtor in the office has ever been told by a client that they did or didn't want to live on the "other side" of the street the appraiser used as a condition to compare the sale.

I can only wonder how many people World has ripped off by using their in-house appraisers to deflate values so homeowners don't meet the 80% LTV ratio. I think some checking might indicate the need for a class action suit.

Further, although World may be meeting the letter of CA law regarding removal of PMI, they certainly aren't meeting the intent of the law.

I am still paying $204/month for PMI that I should not have to pay. I have spent endless hours trying to resolve this and am out the $275 appraisal fee.