Consumer complaint received 2023-04-04
Company: Peer Advisors, LLC
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Reverse mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
My father died in XXXX of XXXX. He had applied and taken out a reverse mortgage to pay medical expenses. He only received approximately $ XXXX in the payout. The current payoff for the reverse mortgage, after about 13 years from its inception, is approximately {$400000.00}. The last deed filed on the home transferred ownership to me, XXXX XXXX, after the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Upon his XXXX, foreclosure proceedings commenced. At that time, the home was occupied by his granddaughter, her son, and several friends. I probated my father 's estate and worked to remove all the occupants and resolve the foreclosure with the former servicer, XXXX. Most recently, I hired a new real estate agent that has been working with Compu-link to sell the home and resolve the foreclosure. 

I have a dispute with HUD and their biased valuation of the home that I wish to resolve. The bank hired an appraiser that performed an inspection in XXXX of XXXX. But this report did not take into account the specific location of this home, that is known by locals to flood, and did not note its close proximity to an active railroad track, nor did it discuss the massively deteriorated condition of the home. This appraisal report valued the home at $ XXXX. But there were no purchase offers coming in at that range. Therefore, I hired another HUD approved appraiser that conducted a thorough independent inspection. This appraisal report was done this year of XX/XX/XXXX and valued the home at $ XXXX. 

I wanted to dispute the first appraisal, and therefore my agent contacted Compu-Link and XXXX XXXX XXXX from the HUD Division wrote In order to submit your dispute request to HUD, we also need a formal letter outlining the errors on the HUD appraisal . Well also need copies of the formal estimates. Please keep in mind that all HUD appraisals are As Is, and that HUD does not consider disagreement over the comps used as a valid reason for dispute. 

We hired and submitted another appraisal report plus two independent general contractor cost analysis to Compu-link. However they claimed " HUD does not consider disagreements over the comps used as a valid reason for dispute, which is prejudicial and discriminatory. Appraisals are based on an independent review. An appraiser Compu-link hired to review this property is supposed to be independent of the servicer, the debtor or mortgage holder, as well as be familiar with the area and the marketplace of the property. An HUD approved independent appraiser that I hired did not favor the lender or me and based the appraised value on the current " AS IS '' market with the current conditions of the subject property. Any assertion that a servicer hired appraiser is more capable of evaluating a home over another independent HUD approved appraiser is biased and not logical. 



We forwarded a HUD approved appraisal report that disputed their valuation and included a formal letter outlining the errors in this former appraisal, with two independent construction estimates with state license attached. Their appraiser used homes not in the immediate area, that were in a renovated condition and not in an " AS IS '' format, and sold in the YEAR of XXXX rather than the last year. 


We got this message : The review has concluded and HUD advises that the HUD appraised value of {$280000.00} stands.Review of both appraisals reveal the application of condition adjustments within the comparative sales analysis. While acknowledging the subjects overall condition, Appraisal # 2 applies condition adjustments at a 30 % rate which is deemed excessive and breaches the preferred line-item threshold guideline of 10 % substantially. Further, both gross and net adjustments have been exceeded substantially for most of the sales used in the report. Additionally, three of the four closed sales utilized in Appraisal # 2 were not arms length transactions ( per NJ Division of Taxation as cited non-usable deed transactions for assessment purposes ). Sale # 1 is cited as a bank transfer in lieu of foreclosure and both Sales # 2 and # 3 were estate sales. Sale # 4 was an arms length transaction that sold for {$320000.00} but was subject to the aforementioned 30 % condition adjustment ( a {$96000.00} adjustment alone ). As such, the overall comparative sales analysis is considered to have been skewed negatively. The comparable sales used within Appraisal # 1 were all verified to be at arms length. As the purpose is to determine the market value under the definition as required of same, arms length transactions are considered most appropriate. Based on the review of the two appraisal reports, and in consideration of the issues cited, it appears that a plausible value for the subject would be within a reasonable range tolerance of the {$280000.00} value as determined by Appraisal # 1 in this case. 

We were told there is no formal appeal but requested our appeal be forwarded to HUD based on them making false assertions w/o proof that Sales # 2 and # 3 were sold to a family member of the deceased and assumptions that an Estate sale is NOT an arms length transition is flawed. " Sale # 1 is cited as a bank transfer in lieu of foreclosure. '' This too does not indicate that this was not an arms length transfer and therefore any assumption that a sale of a property by a bank, after commencing a foreclosure, is not arms length is also flawed. The HUD approved appraiser I hired stated : " SUBJECT HAS PHYSICAL DEFICIENCIES AND ADVERSE CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT ITS LIVABILITY. DUE TO A LIMITED NUMBER OF COMPARABLES IN SIMILAR CONDITION AS THE SUBJECT, COMPARABLES IN SUPERIOR CONDITION AND FUNCTION WERE USED AND ADJUSTED BASED ON TYPICAL MARKET REACTION AND ESTIMATED COST TO CURE. AS A RESULT OF THE EXTENSIVE AMOUNT OF REPAIR NEEDS NET AND GROSS ADJUSTMENTS MAY EXCEED THE TYPICAL 15 % AND 25 % GUIDELINE. ALL SALES USED WERE IN THE OPEN MARKET WITH MLS NUMBERS. IN GENERAL, SALES IN THE OPEN MARKET ARE NOT PRIVATE SALES OR SALES BETWEEN FAMILY AND ARE CONSIDERED ARMS LENGH SALES. SUBJECT VALUE IS LOWER THEN PREDOMINANT SINGLE FAMILY HOMES IN ITS NEIGHBORHOOD BECAUSE SUBJECT IS OLDER IN ACTUAL AND EFFECTIVE AGE AND SUBJECT IS SMALLER THAN PREDOMINANT ONE UNIT HOUSES IN ITS NEIGHBORHOOD AND SUBJECT IS IN POORER CONDITION THAN PREDOMINANT HOMES IN ITS MARKET. '' Therefore HUD and Compu-link are preventing me from selling this home and relieving the estate of foreclosure based on untrue information, even when facts are presented in plain documents. I did all this investigation to determine the value of the home from 3 independent individuals that are licensed and they assert their single appraiser is more equipped to know the value of this home. That is disingenuous and wrong. They ultimately are seeking to foreclose the home and therefore they are not considering factual information. Therefore since they insist on being biased, I wish to appeal this decision with this formal notice through the CFPB.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation