Shame on Well's Fargo!!!!

Here's the story...

We (Elite Auctions) held a live, onsite real estate auction in Bakersfield, CA where there were 15 registered bidders that all brought $5,000 cashier's checks in order to participate. After about 4 minutes of intense bidding the final price came in at $93,500. The winning bidder purchased the property to hold as a rental and wanted to finance the purchase with Wells Fargo. After the appraiser went out to the property, twice, the appraisal came in at $80,000. How can one person's opinion of value trump 15 bidders' opinion of value?

The following letter was sent to the Well's Fargo representative...

Obviously we were very disappointed that you aren't able to provide a higher appraisal on 2008 Lantana. This now requires that the buyer (your potential customer) will need to come up with more money than maybe he was anticipating.

If you don't know this, a public auction is the best appraisal for any property...as it puts all interested and qualified parties together to determine the true value. Because it is an "as is" / non-contingent sale with money at stake, it truly will provide the cash value of a given property. No formal appraisal is necessary!

It's a shame that property owners in the neighborhood are being subjected to someone's opinion of value vs. true value based on several willing and able buyers with cash. This is truly socialism in textbook form. A neighborhood will never increase in value if value is based on the last sale. Being ultra conservative is not an excuse... let the people with the money and the credit decide where the market should go.

It's amazing to us how lenders and appraisers put us in the current predicament with their greed and now are not allowing the wonderful free enterprise system work to help get out of the mess they created. Buyers determine value not appraisers, realtors or comparable sales...don't ever forget this. Buyers with cash and good credit not no doc loans,/no down payment/lousy credit buyers. I believe you have this switched around. Just a reminder...as a tax payer who is bailing you out, I feel this is a good time to provide you a straight forward lesson in Economics 101 and a reminder of your poor judgments.(and the trend is apparently continuing)

For the record we had 15 registered bidders, with at least 5 buyers who thought the property was worth much more than $80,000. The second bidder was $1,000 less than Jerry!

Before you get upset or think I'm wrong...re-read this letter two more times. If the above lesson doesn't make sense after reading it 3 times, our country has an even bigger problem than we all thought.

If you had no input on this poor decision made by Wells Fargo Susan, please have the respect of passing this along to the responsible parties...if not as a customer, as a concerned US citizen.