LandAmerica / Nationwide Appraisal & Title company Review

All these people works here are bunch of idiots. Not only me but other people I know who got the apparasal reports from these idiots are way off. Also report was not on time where I paid extra for it. I got different appraisal company and got the accurate report. Now I'm taking them to court for false report and inaccurate value of my house. Mortgage companies should not deal with them at all. I don't even know how these idiots still exist.
They should be shut down by the government.

Excellent service! Second time using the service. Excellent communication, very professional had a great guy coming to Alliston very knowledgeable of the area. Thank you.

Their service is CRAP! No accountability, no response, have you tried calling them? there's no way you can get through.

Worst company to deal with ! A Nightmare for a mortgage broker !!!

First, a Rush Order takes 4 days and they find it normal ...
Second, they take days to respond to a message on their portal...
Third, their customer service sucks: they hang up the phone on mortgage brokers !!! They seem to forget that they won't have a job with mortgage brokers !
The value appeal is not worked on and they don't want to give out the appraiser's names.... I missed 2 deals because of this nightmarish company !

Pathetic.
I regret getting an appraisal done through them. They compared my 2700sqft 4 bedroom home to smaller 3 bedroom homes. Value came in much less than what it is worth. PATHETIC

I can't believe I have to give them 1 star. I wish they had negative stars... too many painful experiences to mention here. I'll get another ulcer. Stay away.

I would give them a zero if I could...
I will add my 2 cents.. Our agent is furious the comparable properties are not remotely comparable..
I paid $600 for the appraisal and then they came back a day later asking for $100 more.. Apparently for Acreage which they didn't include... Ordered the appraisal on July 30, we had 15 days to waive conditions... the bills came August 10 the appraisal was supposedly done August 17th and it took them 4 days to post it..

We had to ask for an extension and they only barely got the appraisal in with the time extension.

The deal will die as I can't afford the $30K difference they should have included the nanny suite, one of the garages and 5 acres... I don't think they even went into the house...

Useless, unprofessional and expensive... Manulife should be ashamed of themselves for forcing us to use them..

Horrible services the Rep hardly can speak English, confused, mixed the dates. my advice never use them.

I would give this company 0 stars if that was an option. After we payed for for appraisal ( 715.00) of our new property in Nova Scotia . They wanted more, almost double . Our mortgage broker will be filling a complaint against the company . We almost lost our dream home because of them ..

I ask twice if it was possible to do an inspection at the same time as the evaluation I confirmed that it would have done at the same time I ask a detailed invoice to be certain but we refused because of lack of time to pay and obviously only received the evaluation which was done by an independent firm .....

to summarize they are simply intermediaries who pocketed at great expense without doing anything because associate with the bank and will lie to you if it can be easy

Worst service - ever. Unresponsive and doesn't take immediate and decisive responsibility for their service which includes that of appraisers under contract.

0 stars is too good for you. I tried submitting an appraisal through Expert, which doesn't work. Your portal, despite what your hold music says, is not up to date. I have to consistently wait on hold for upwards for 25 minutes to get an answer to a basic question. What an awful service.

Total incompetence.
The appraiser showed up over an hour late.
Must have been rushed because he didn't spend much time looking at the property.
Took 2 weeks to produce the report.
The number he came up with is absurd - not even close.
Not sure how these folks got accredited.
Whatever you do, don't let this company on your property. Take ANY alternative!

IF I HAD IT ALL TO DO OVER AGAIN I WOULD HAVE LEFT MY BANK FOR ANOTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTION THAT USES A REPUTABLE APPRAISER. JUST NOT WORTH THE HASSLE.

Can I give them a zero star?

Horrible, Bad, Worthless, what else can I saw. On two different occasions in under a year, our mortgage company used NAS's service. On the first occasion the appraiser used "comps" that were 100 sq/ft in high rise condos, to our 2000 sq/ft townhome. Used old units that were terminated and did not sell. It ended up costing us a bit of money but we managed to sort it out. Had a bad feeling when we purchased another home.

On the second one - they "virtually" appraised our new home. When I spoke w/ the appraiser he openly said he does not do appraisals in the area we bought our home. He did not know how to access the photos, or download the pictures when my realtor told him. We were off to a great start.. Then he compared 3 cheaply built homes in areas where builders slap together hundreds of homes at once to a custom finished 3,000 sq/ft home. I could go on and on, but there is no point. Two were actually appraised at a higher value which completely baffles my mind. I understand that it is difficult in these times, but when you don't visit at house how can you appraise it. Looks like our deal is going to fall through.

Overall, this company is pathetic and useless. I am not sure how any company would use their services after reading the reviews.

They don't pick up the phone or return your call. Terrible!

Remarkably corrupt company who always charge double then what promised. No person ever comes out to do any assessments its all done via Google Earth. They are notorious for asking additional fees due to "home being larger then normal" excuse. I made 7 calls and nobody answers the calls.

It took 30 mins to answer from Customer Service. Never update the current status on the report. Just kept tell you "we are busy" or "we are working on it". Most worst appraisal company.

Won't send me a copy of the very appraisal I paid for! Really?! They tell me to go ask the broker it was sent to. Is it really that hard to forward an email?

As a mortgage broker I'm sometimes required to use this company's services. AWFUL SERVICE!!! long wait times to speak with representatives who far to often don't know answers to questions or give false information. Recently when asking for assistance the representative hung up on me.

Under evaluated my house resulting in a larger down payment by using apples to oranges comparisons. Different neighborhoods, smaller lot sizes were the comparible data sets. The things that home owners see value in may not apply to their value calculation. Purchased upgrades? More square footage? Nope. Basically if there is any house in the same city as yours that sold in the last 90 days - that will be your baseline. If there is limited sales data in any time frame, appraisers should be trained to apply factors to better assess the information. I.e. perhaps expand the search to 120 days instead of limiting it to 90 days out. Or compare year over year pricing of similar homes.

If there was a decrease sales of new BMW SUVs in the last 90 days, do you think its appraisal value dropped down to Kia Forte?

Don't know where their data is coming from, but they under evaluated my house by about 20-40%. Also what is quite peculiar, is that they have majority of the big banks contracts, when it comes to evaluation for mortgage and refinancing purposes. Let me be clear, if I was evaluating a property for secure lending purposes I would also leave a threshold delimiting the value of said asset for reasons related to if client defaults as well as the extra work/fees associated with dumping the asset at its lowest market value (quick sale while recouping the 100% principal + loss of interest). However minus 20-40% under evaluation, plus the fact u can only finance/refinance up to 80% of that under "value", we talking negative 40-60% of market value, which equates to roughly municipal evaluation in my neck of the woods. Clearly in banks favour which is understandable but over margined IMHO, but at the very least 20% in my situation. Shop around, also do not accept mortgages from banks who use only this company.
Update:09/2020
They are not part of the Appraisals Institute of Canada, Canadian National Association of Real Estate Appraisers nor Orders des Evaluators Agrees au Quebec. Not sure any of that matters as I have not compared best practices methods recommend vs used, but its highly questionable how they handle the evals for all major Canadian banks, yet not even a Canadian company.
Another questionable practice is how they delete high priced outliers but neglect to do the same with low priced outliers. If u have 5 identical properties (very rare), and one property sells for proportionally higher than all others due to renovations or amenities etc...yet one sells for proportionally lower (known defects, sold without warranty (Quebec ;-0), requires major renovations), how can it be included? This brings base values of all comparable homes down. In my opinion this is a flawed model and in favour of only the bank.

I will further research and report back. If you dont hear from me in 3 months they took care of me :-).

this has to be the worst company I ever deal with. they had 10 days to submit their appraisal, they submitted the day before closing and $20,000 under value which cause a number of problems with the bank. They over charging me by $305 which they agreed to refund. it's been six month and eight phone calls and no refund yet. I got a confirmation email six months ago that a refund was applied, but that was a lie, no credit was applied to my credit card. I do not think they have any intention of refunding my money. the last time a called (the 8th time) I was told I would get a call back same day, that was a month ago. just look at all the one star rating they got, the worst reviews I ever seen by any company. stay away from this company, base on the reviews you're most likely to get bad service. Even one star is to much.

They gave me a price. I paid it. Three days later, apparently they want more money before they will do the job. BS!

Absolutely horrible. There was a deadline of June 12th. My loan was being expedited. Appraisal supposed to be in by the 12th. All other appraisal companies have them in within 3 days. I was told "as long as it's in by midnight of deadline, it is not late". This is 10 days later. BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY

Worst Appraisal company to work with. We unfortunately got assigned Cathy Desbiens......her lack of knowledge and professionalism is what's driving this google review and the low rating. She was unpleasant to work with and this is coming from the Showhome Manager and my Mortgage Broker. Very incompetent. Wondering why someone with the little knowledge of home building can be authorized to put a value on a home??? Didn't have a choice when it came to this appraisal company, its was assigned by the bank. Well TD Canadatrust, if you want more customers or to keep your existing customers, get rid of this company. This staff in particular is enough to bring my business elsewhere.

STEAR CLEAR! If you get an email requesting funding when looking for a mortgage try to find another source. These folks, if you read through the reviews send an invoice that you pay believing you have the service underway and then conveniently will send you a top up (mine was $265 plus plus) to which you have no option but to pay now that you are already $500 plus in! You cannot get ahold of anyone by phone and they have you by the short hairs! Once you begin you are in and there is no way out. This company used the excuse of "executive property" which was a convenient way to money grab! This property was in no way "executive". property.

Was waiting three days for someone to contact me for an appraisal, the only contact I received was for a price increase of $140! They charged an extra $70 because my house is worth over $400k. Sorry but find me a house that isn't in Southern Ontario! I'm tempting fate since as of this post there still hasn't been anyone to contact me...

The fact that the only rating above 2 stars is someone who "works" there, should tell you a lot. Save yourself the headache and use Solidifi.

So I got an email to PRE-pay for an appraisal through NAS. I ve had many appraisals done and never paid for this service before the service was provided. So this was very strange and offending. Then I decide I have no choice and decide to pay. I open up the email link and they want 1200$!!!! For a single family home. Oh... it s a mistake. Then I get an email asking for a payment of 400$. The going rate in my area is 300-350$. So I found that rate high, but I paid. Again no choice when the bank specified an appraisal company. Then hours later I get another email for a fee increase of 50$! They wanted me to approve the new charge! The reason.... Executive Property . This is a 40 year old Backsplit worth under 500,000$. It is in the average price range for a single family home. Executive MY A$$. Another mistake? Who knows. This is unacceptable customer service. I wish I could give this company 0 Stars. They re crooks!!!

Terrible service, don't respond to update requests. Can't reach them by phone. Don't use this company.

Stay away from this company if you can. Appraiser was 40 min. late for appointment, obviously not familiar with the area and ended up evaluating our property way below current market. He used for comparable property that was sold last year and totally of different size. Unprofessional!
If I could give them 0 stars, I would!

Scam artists & incompetents.

Appraised property at half its value. Then, threw on all these extra trumped-up fees for doing so.

I cancelled the service and i try to call and ask for refund but somehow was not able to reach customer services

Not very impressed with the way things went with this company. My Mortgage broker told me that our financing bank requires an appraisal on the home we were purchasing. Sure no problem... I was charged an extra $100 just to expedite the home appraisal, which I realize now was just a money grab. I was charged almost $500 in total. I also had to fight with them to obtain a copy of the home appraisal that I paid for.

If your financial institution is suggesting using this company I would find another financial institution to work with.

I ended up using a different mortgage broker, and a new financial institution. They also required a home appraisal, but I didn't have to pay, and it was still done the next day.

They pretty much took my money. I had no choice in which company to use for the home appraisal as it was who the financial institution wanted to use.

The home appraisal also came in less than expected.

Hopefully you read this review before you agree to paying these scammers.

The financial institution was Street Capital.

Customer Service has really decreased in the past 6 months. When I post a comment on the portal it does not get answered. I then have to call with a minimum hold time of 30 minutes which is so frustrating. I have left my number for a "call back" twice and have never received a call back. When I finally reach a customer service rep I'm then told that they will update the portal and advise of the status - which rarely happens. I think this will be me last order with NAS and will start using Solidify.

I am giving a star because I have to give one but would be 0.I dealt with eu and it was all weird.

This a garbage company agent came and less then 8 minutes finished appraisal click pic that s it the way they do appraisal like in official agent batter don t go with this company and don t west your money.

How this company stays in business is one of the greatest mysteries in the world. They are the cancer of the mortgage industry.

Was referred to this company by someone. I wish I had done my research. Very poor customer service. I hate writing negative reviews but this place deserves one.

Several days of waiting over 35 minutes for a representative and still no answer. I am losing money by the day because they are "looking" for an appraiser. No actual person to talk to. No real status. Covid19 can't be the reason you don't have even a few agents to field calls remotely. Disappointing.

Had an appraisal done out of Timmins for Kirkland Lake. I paid 500 bucks. Canada mortgage brokers say they can't give me a copy. This means I will have to pay again to have the house appraised. In order to complete a private mortgage that I have managed to get on my own. Why can't I have a copy of something that I have paid for.

Horrible experience. Apprasair was over a month sending the report . He clearly didnt know the value of our house or area. I questioned if the new wiring and plumbing we put in was even considered and compared. He phoned me to double check how many bathrooms we had because he couldnt remember. Then valued our house at least 100 thousand under the value. We are under rennovation so knew might be a bit less but was ridiculous . We had out house appraised at 120 more the year before

Impossible to get someone out to get an appraisal in a reasonable amount of time through this service. They are going to make me lose out on purchasing my home.

Terrible customer service, and shoddy work. They also double-billed me, and have yet to issue a refund. Do not use if you have any other option.

Many people have the misconception that this company is an appraisal company. It is NOT. It is a service provider to the Appraiser companies and lending institutions. It is the the lending institutions who decide on the fees to charge. It is the appraiser who have the flexibility depending on the situation, and yes, after the fact to up the fee depending on the service being provided (rush, multi-unit when only a single unit was requested, etc) There are many many factors and examples that are not in the control of Nationwide. If you have a problem report with the appraisal report it to the lending institution and they can start a review process. In actuality Nationwide provides a great service that facilitates and speeds up the appraisal process and keeps banks, appraisers, and other parties involved accountable. Hope this review helps to clear the air on the role of Nationwide and mute the common complaint in these reviews about changing fees, poor service etc.

worst compamy ever, bad customer service talking so rude on the phone. I paid my apprisal 310.5$ later i get other email for pay other extra 210$??????? what is for an extra 210$$$ for?????? so if i pay 210$ then will come up with other extra fee ???? when i called the customer service refund my money, they just asked me to called my broker to requested the refund. my broker requested for refund until now there no answer.

I am a mortgage broker in the industry. This is the Worst appraisal company to use. Appraisers are careless and make mistakes in pivotal appraisals costing clients $1000's of additional downpayments. On top of this, the increase fees at will. despite having information up front they will first charge you a small fee, then increase fee by 100%.

This company is absolutely absurd. Stay away.

Received an email regarding a request that contradicts the message I received on the NAS website. Impossible to get a human on the phone. Round and round you go pressing numbers. I hate the fact your only option is to send a message and sit and wait.

One of the worst appraisal company. We needed to get property appraisals on an urgent basis, we paid them, we requested that we need urgent on priority basis that if lender do not receive in time we may not be our other property. We keep calling them everyday 3-4 times a day for almost 10 days, our closing date passed and lender did not receive report from them. We had to pay penalties because of this company. We never want to deal with them anymore in future. Stay away from this company if you can!

I was thoroughly unimpressed with the appraisal they recently completed on my home and candidly, shocked at the value. Their comparative data set was stale and the appraiser clearly never went into the homes used as comps - you need to smell and touch the real estate to know its true value. It's reassuring to know I'm not the only person that's had poor treatment with this firm. That said, I encourage others to stay away from this group and use another service.

Absolutely the worst and most rude customer service I've experienced from Valentina and other support staff. They didn't complete a simple appraisal properly and it cost me and my lender hours of time to figure out their mistakes over the span of a week being overdue. Not something you want to experience with sharp closing dates. Would not recommend.

Very difficult to work with. Hard to get staff on the phone, website and messaging system is not optimal, and always have a difficult time dealing with the company. Constantly trying to drive down appraisal prices. I don't know why banks use this service to hire appraisers or what the cost is to them, but I personally would never use Nationwide Appraisal Services.

Took my payment three weeks ago. they keep pushing off to the the appraisal. have held up the ENTIRE purchase process waiting for them. They say they are doing it but never actually show up to do it. Keep requesting (at this point demanding/blackmailing me for more money) after having already received multiple payments for the job. When you call they deflect all blame saying it's subcontractors or my mortgage broker when it all traces back to them. Under valued house by almost $50 000 in the end. Terrible experience from start to finish, so disapointed a major bank like Scotiabank requires you to use such a flaky company.

I wish I could give this company a 0, but the lowest is 1. Before they would even start, they increased their fee by $50, and there was no recourse, and no way of talking to them about it. It felt like extortion. Then, when they finished, I had the most useless appraisal I have ever seen. No comparisons or analysis was done - it looks like the appraiser just looked at the MLS listing for the property, and used that number. No neighbourhood pricing was even done.

I wish I could give this company 0 but the lowest is 1.

What a terrible experience. Don't just walk away, run from using this company. Appraiser was rude to our realtor. they couldn't get the appraisal done within the conditions timeline. Also charged additional fees for things that didn't even meet their own criteria and wont reverse the charge. Value was way off other houses in the area.

What a waste of time and money!

This company not a good to do appraisal .I booked to do my home for appraisal on June 01,2017 the guy came did not even take 5 mints to measure and take pictures to my home and send report bank next day below than market price and 4 days later they send another revised report to bank way lower value than first report.reason they mention there is a home 2 km from my home was sold lower price two day before. But this house was't in MLS/sold when they did my appraisal.these people are not recommended to do appraisals. I paid $320 but they only spend 5 mints to did my appraisal ,pictures not clear he took from his cell phone.i never ever recommend anyone this company .please be aware from this people ,if you need to do appraisal find other good companies.

worst service ever they did not compare my house to homes in my area they totally redlined my house they did not even come close to the ammenities in my home in some of the comps do not use these people

This is a criminal organization blackmailing more money after intitial fee is paid for home appraisal. Unbelievably horrible service operated by 2 people total so no staff, no office to speak to them in person. RCMP should be investigating these fraudsters

This company contracted out Consolidated Appraisal Services from Barrie to complete my appraisal. The gentlemen who completed it was at my place for no longer then 5 mins and compared my property to others not even in the same region as me! Total incompetence. I would recommend to steer clear from both of these establishments.

If I could rate this company negative starts out of 5 that would actually be a better accurate definition of NAS. They did do one thing right, they managed to gather up all the incompetent people all in 1 area and give them all jobs and formed NAS. I think people working with 0 industry knowledge at a fast food chain can do a better job than NAS.

If you have any other option to use another site to order your appraisal I would. When I asked them to hold a file for payment until the client's payday Nationwide posted a comment that they would and even gave us an extra day. Unfortunately 4 hours later the administration department canceled the order. When I called in to find out why this happened I was told it was due to inactivity on the file. When I explained I had been in communication with them and then with me the response was that the file was canceled due to inactivity and that the person who authorized the account to be held should never have done so. Poor customer service. One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing. When I ask to speak to someone who had authority to correct I was told nobody was there and I could call back the next day. Totally unprofessional.

Provided an estimate for an appraisal and then they increased their fee. Appraised house was a new construction and they couldn't visit the site anyways but they decided to charge for travel time.

Worst company we have dealt with. Never use Nationwide Appraisal Services.

Fast, professional service and the estimate was fair. Did a walkthrough of the house via whatsapp video call, then emailed photos to the appraiser. Appraiser came to the house to take measurements and evaluate the land. The whole process took half an hour and the appraisal was submitted within 24h.

Not sure what's up with all the negative reviews, I guess not everyone has the same experience.

Absolutely terrible customer service. No rating system in place to evaluate bad appraisers. Poor coverage of rural areas which leads them to send appraisers from larger centres that don't know the market. If not forced to use by several lenders I would never, ever use their service.

zero stars are actually warranted, not sure how companies like this are allowed to operate. unqualified, unprofessional, disrespectful and incompetent people. Charged for a service i didn't even receive and they were trying to justify why it is legal to steal peoples money.
Stay away from these guys unless you love terrible expensive service.

What an absolutely terrible service, they don't even bother to read notes, they take the money first then send out randomly, just as useless as they were two years ago.

Very low appraisal. It actually came in less than another appraisal from the same company a year ago and we have spent $50,000 in upgrades. Something is not right there.

Terrible customer service. Impossible to get a hold of anyone at the company, poor turnaround time and they charge for every slight change that is made to the report.

Absolutely terrible! I had an appraisal done on my home by somebody from this company, and not only were they over a half an hour late for the appointment, but they used comparables from completely different neighbourhoods and considerably inferior houses than mine, and ended up under-valuing my house by over $200,000! Completely disgusted by their lack of experience and almost screwed me over with the bank. The fact that this company is still in business absolutely boggles my mind. Avoid this company like the plague!!!

As a broker, I hate their customer service. Impossible to make any changes to an appraisal request online or to get through by phone. Its as if they put as many hurdles as they can to frustrate you. Zero stars. Solidify is much, much better.

I wish there was a zero star rating. This company would not accept or take any comparable household values into account and regurgitated a number from out of nowhere. I understand they have a standardized processes to evaluate, but a company from Markham has no idea about Haldimand County without some kinds of comparables. So basically it came up 90k short and should not have.

Customer service is non-existent, to get anything resolved you need to contact regional VPs