Joseph Takacs Appraisal Services

I asked to skip this appraiser due to his terrible reviews and was told i had no other option but to use him. My appraisal came back low due to his choice in comps. Only one of the five was in my zip-code and a comparable property. Upgrades have no relevance and it's obvious he has zero knowledge of the neighborhoods he is appraising or using as comps. His measurements are wrong and "approximate" sqft is completely off.

PLEASE!!! Do NOT use Mr Joseph Takacs Appraisal Services. He does very sloppy job. Breaking
appraisal rules. If financial company sends him DO NOT open the door and ask for somebody else.
He will compare Your property to one that is totally different than Yours and base his report on that.
Chances are the appraisal will be thousands of dollars under the real value.

I have documents to prove it.

JT Appraisals made significant factual errors on my appraisal report (e.g. claimed comparable names in Newark had private garages and balconies, ignored very significant upgrades of one property over another). How much is a private, secured garage in the car-stealing capital worth? When some of these "mistakes" were shown to the company, JT corrected it's report JT but refused to make any change to it's home valuation. Their actions were unprofessional, unreasonable, unethical, simply made no common business sense and cost me money. I will forever remember their name and REFUSE their services at every turn. As the Treasurer of a Board that is actively pursuing property transactions in Essex County, I expect to see their name again.

I would avoid using this appraiser at all costs. If your bank hires him, ask for another appraiser.

He did an appraisal for my condo, which I'm looking to refinance. There were many mistakes in his report, little things that don't materially affect the price, but just show you he did quick and sloppy work, for instance not including my parking spaces which are owned, missing appliances, etc. But much more importantly, he cherry picked comps that negatively impacted my appraisal. He decided that some comps were the most important ones, but actually were not comparable at all. Others, he conveniently left of the report all together that would have improved my appraisal.

I appealed my appraisal 2 times. After the first appeal was rejected with little or no explanation, I called him, making sure he was aware of all the mistakes, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies in the report. He promised that he would look at it again fairly. But he did no such thing. My 2nd appeal was denied and all my points were dismissed out of hand, with no opportunity for further discussion.

My opinion is that this appraiser is lazy, doesn't want to put the time in to do the proper research to get a fair and accurate appraisal. When confronted with his mistakes, he is defensive and attempts to justify his shoddy work.

Its wrong to think that any appraiser will give you a preferential appraisal, and I wasn't looking for one. I just wanted a fair appraisal and I did not get one from Joseph Takacs.