Evans Appraisal Service

Been a while since I've written a review, and usually only do so as word of mouth can kill small business. So, with that said, let me be clear: please put this small business out of its misery. Mr Evans and his team are doing no favors for the Chico community with their service, business model and implementation. So...someone move in the for the mercy kill. PLEASE. Why do I feel this way?

As another unhappy customer (simply look at the reviews on Yelp, Google etc etc...), let me give you some background. We contacted our bank for a refinance in July 2021. Conditional approval for a fairly significant rate improvement upon closing was obtained pending an appraisal. In the past 14 months my home has been appraised twice once for a Rocket Mortgage refi attempt (for the record they don't refi over 20 acres, which is why it fell through), and a home equity line of credit (HELOC) which we recently used to convert an unfinished second story of a garage (1270sq ft) to an in-law apartment. Since the most recent appraisal 12 months ago, which was fair and within the standard deviation of comps in the area where we live, we had completed close to $200k of work on our home, including the addition of the aforementioned in-law apartment. Time to REFI!

Firstly, Mr. Evans and his associate arrived about an hour late. I took the day off from work to be sure to be home and go over any improvements since we purchased the home in early 2018. Mr. Evans and his team moved swiftly. So quickly, in fact, that there had completed the exterior of the home in no more than 18-19 minutes (pretty easy timeline to assess with a Ring security system). Upon entry into the home, he promptly handed me his card and asked that I take the weekend (3 days or so) and think "very carefully" about all of the improvements we had performed. I was to email him Monday the following week with the list of improvements. They departed. Polite, cordial. Easy enough. I was reassured.

Spent just under 3 hours on Saturday assembling a list of the many improvements we had accomplished over the past 3 years. Fencing damaged by the Camp Fire, new chandelier, the in-law apartment etc, etc....Composed an email Sunday, and pressed send Monday at 1:20pm. 45 minutes later I receive word that the upgrades would not be used as they were received too late. Fast forward a week and the assessed value came in almost 20% lower than my last, and 25% lower than the lowest I'd received to date. This in the setting of a competitive market and a 1300sq ft addition!

So, one star? No. Not even one star. Am I upset the value is less than expected? Sure. But the real tragedy is that this company is sketchy, somehow still in business, and robbing local home owners of equity they most likely have in their homes. By dollars that are statistically significant.

This is outright criminal.

Be aware low appraisals!! This guy is ignorant and arrogant. Do not hire Mark if you can help it. He uses comps that are ridiculous and won't reflect the true value of your especially if it's custom. Gives no credit for updates or condition.