April 23, 2008 - A letter was printed and sent to me advising me that the value of my home had gone down by 260, 000 in less than a year and that an AVM (automated valuation method) had been used to create the value for my home.

Being in Mortgage Banking for over 15 years, and having friends still in the business, I understand the market today and how house prices have fluctuated. The value they placed on my home was inaccurate through their AVM.

April 29 2008 (the day after I received the letter), I phoned the number on the letter to see if they could not look at the appraisal that was less than a year old and pull comps for the area...which I had done...to see that the value of my home is the same, if not higher, than what they had stated.

I was told, by several people, that they could not do this. I aksed if I could know the name of the company used for the AVM so I could correct the inaccuracy at that level. I was told "no" again.

My only recourse was to claim hardship or pay 500.00 dollars for one of their approved appraisers to come out to reavaluate the home. I asked how often they would run the AVM based soley on my address...I was told every 3 months while the market is still volitile. I said, "So what you are saying to me...for you to evaluate my home properly, I will have to schedule and pay for an appraisal to be done every 3 months, since you do not except appraisals older than 3 months and will be running the AVM about that often?"

The answer was "true."

Even though I have proof they have valued my home incorrectly, they will not take the steps necessary to correct their error. I am sure there are other people who have had their home run through an AVM (which is only based on your address...so if the median sqf is 1400 squared feet, your home will have that value). I checked with public records...they have closer to the sqf than the avm...so I am guessing they are using the median home sqf for the area.

They have fozen my line of credit, which I was not planning on using anyway, but I do want their information to be accurate if they are making key decisions based off inacurate information. I was treated poorly and rudely by the last person I talked to and was exasperated with the lack or cooperation in correcting their error. I am seekin the number of the AVM company or the CEO's number in order to escalate the issue, and am also looking into refiing my Heloc loan with another company that cares and that I may be able to trust to do the right thing.

If I can find more people who have come across this issue, and who have not had proper handling, I would be interested in starting a class action law suite against National City Mortgage.