Apple Appraisal, Inc.

Provided a lightening quick appraisal on a home I was seeking to buy in the East Bay with a fourteen day close promised to the sellers (who had two compelling backup offers). Apple was on the property site the very next day and had their appraisal complete and within $ 2K of my offer price by end of business.
Their comps were accurate and included another property I had bid on (and lost) the prior week, further validating my purchase decision. Highly recommended.

Apple Appraisals has struck again. Don’t do it! Don’t do it! Find someone else to conduct your appraisal. Everyone’s comments here are 100% true. The CEO conducted my appraisal. He is just plain incompetent. My condo was 95% upgraded and he appraised my unit way below the lowest average, he compared my property to pending sales and not actual sales, the same exact unit next door to me sold for 15K more than what he appraised my property for and it had 0% upgrades. THIS WAS ALL BAD. My property was appraised at least 30K below the market value for my area.
I will also be filling a complaint with the CA States Board of Real Estate Appraisers. This company has to go!!!
Updated 8÷13÷15
This company doesn’t even deserve 1 star. The appraisal was challenged by the mortgage firm and Apple Appraisal increased the appraised amount by $ 10K. Who has ever heard of such a thing? This just proves the initial report was erroneous and that this firm is incompetent of providing appraisals. The true value of the property is still not known.

I was in the same position as other reviewers here. If you find out that your lender is using Apple Appraisals, insist on another appraiser or change lenders. Your transaction or refinance may completely get blown up, and you’ll be have to cut them a check anyway.
The appraisal on our transaction came in over $ 100K less than the agreed upon purchase price. This is on a house that had over 11 offers above asking. Apple appraisers clearly don’t understand markets outside of Contra Costa.
Apple willfully ignored numerous comps from the nearby neighborhood, all of which had higher $/​sq. ft. than ours. They used a comp from a house that had a front yard facing the freeway, and used the asking price on another unsold house in a market where transactions routinely go 20% over asking.
Despite an appeal, showing numerous comps that they had missed, Apple refused to acknowledge their incompetence. Although our comps were more recent and within ½ a mile from the house, Apple claimed they weren’t relevant. Do yourself a favor and steer clear.

I just filed a complaint with the State Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers. I urge anyone else that has had a bad and unfair experience with Apple Appraisal to do the same. Let’s put companies like this out of business.

I read their reviews on Unilocal just a couple of days before my mortgage company ordered the appraisal through these guys. I am usually good in following the Unilocal reviews as they have never put me in a false situation for a high reviewed business. I should have listened to Hari’s post. Same thing happened to me in a same situation — like lightning doesn’t hit the same place twice, I dont think this is a fluke. I don’t know what crappy comparables these guys took, the appraisal came about $ 40k short than the original estimates from other banks such as Chase, Well Fargo, BOA.
I would definitely advise other fellow Unilocalers to ensure that you DO NOT get your home appraised by these guys! If your lender is choosing these guys for a refi situation, then advise him/​her for someone else to do your appraisal — or you can kiss your $ 450 good bye and not get a fair appraisal!
— — — — — — — –
I would give them a 1.5 star for trying (after the fact, of course) to explain their point of view as of why my property is not what the other independent appraisers assessed (BOA, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc.).
They did, in fact, as for a comparable that I thought should have been included in assessment of my property. I just gave them one of the ones that I distinctly remember which was there in the comparables of the other appraisers. They did come back and provided line by line justification of why they thought my property did not compare to that. But that was just one example.
They were the ones who did my initial appraisal in 2013 and they were pretty much on the dot (same as what other appraisers assessed) during that time (so, I would add a 0.5 star to my review for that time) which is why I am more perplexed as to why such as big variance in just a year.

Was refinancing my mortgage. The company asked me to pay $ 450 for the appraisal; wasn’t sure who is honest and fair, so I let my broker pick the appraisal company. BIG MISTAKE. Apple Appraisal sent an individual who literally spent about 30 min, took some pictures and came in at least $ 100k below few homes recently sold on my street. His comps were not even included in the analysis and he included homes sold last year. Well… the market is different and you would think an appraisal company would know.
I do not recommend this company nor their individual appraisers, as they lack common sense!

We had one of the CEOs do the appraisal on our property. Although professional, his appraisal was really off. He used a boarded-​up property down the street as a comparable and did not disclose that is was a boarded-​up, uninhabitable property. We approached him nicely and asked him to re-​evaluate, he refused. Very unsatisfied for the amount of money we paid (one of the most expensive appraisals).