When Fire Damage is Concealed

 












This was a situation in which a hard money lender called me in for a second opinion about an appraisal of a historic building in Sutter County, California.  The building was vacant but the appraiser used the assumption that it would reach full occupancy in one month. 

Naturally, when I confront a vacant building, I call the city to ask if it has a Certificate of Occupancy. Not only was there no certificate of occupancy, it had expired building permits to correct previous fire damage.  Then I consulted the media and quickly found a photo of the building actually on fire:


So either the appraiser was negligent or perhaps even participating in a loan fraud.



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