My take is the home appraiser was a total hack.
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I wouldn’t hire a ‘home appraiser’ or any other type of ‘home inspector’. What is a far better approach is to bring in specialists... hopefully ones that you already know and trust. Taking this approach might cost a bit more money but I would rather get a report from a licensed electrician, a licensed plumber and a structural engineer than I would from some generalist who perhaps has no direct experience in any of those three areas. As for everything else, I’d rather be doing the inspection myself..
Hard to to do if you are moving to a new location. You need prior homeowner experience to avoid being taken to the cleaners.