A black Bay Area couple has settled a lawsuit with the appraisal company who valued their home at just $945,000, when it was really worth $1.5 million, a fact the couple only learned when they got a white friend to pose as its owner.

The undisclosed settlement victory for Paul and Tenisha Tate Austin includes compensation from Janette Miller, the appraiser, and her business, Miller and Perotti Real Estate Appraisers, who had two different employees appraise the Marin City home within a few weeks of each other in 2020.

In addition to the money, Miller must agree to watch a documentary about the Austin family’s case titled Our America: Lowballed. She will also attend training on the prevention of housing discrimination.

Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California were also named in the lawsuit at co-plaintiffs. The group’s executive director, Caroline Peattie, told the San Jose Mercury News that the decision to settle was made due to the toll a long trial could take on a family.

‘Obviously we felt we had a strong case or else we wouldn’t have pursued it in the first place. Filing a lawsuit on the strength of the evidence is one thing and how a judge will rule is a separate question. You’re never assured of a particular outcome. I think everybody involved with the case was ready to move on,’ Peattie said.

Tenisha Tate-Austin and her husband Paul Austin said they were ‘glad’ that the lawsuit was behind them

The couple sued appraiser Janette Miller, pictured, her firm Miller and Perotti Real Estate Appraisers, Inc over the low-ball figure the couple first received

Paul Austin said in a statement that the family was ‘glad’ to put the lawsuit behind them and described the experience of being lowballed to such a degree as ‘overwhelming,’ according to the Mercury News.

His wife, Tenisha Tate-Austin, said: ‘The ongoing undervaluation of homes in black neighborhoods perpetuates the wealth gap between black and white families.

‘We hope by bringing attention to our case and this lawsuit settlement, we can help change the way the appraisal industry operates, and we can start to see a different trend,’ she continued.

‘There are implications for our ability to create generational wealth or passing things on if our houses appreciate for 50 percent less,’ Tenisha added.

The Austin family bought their home in 2016 for $550,000.

Paul and Tenisha said the first estate agent who appreciated the house was an older white woman – Miller – who used coded phrases like ‘Marin City is a distinct area’ when she valued the property, which they believed was race-related, according to an interview they did with ABC San Francisco in 2021.

When the couple’s white friend, Jan, pictured, posed as the owner, their home went up in value to $1,482,000 – almost $500,000 more

The couple complained to their lender, describing the appraisal as ‘a slap in the face’ before they were finally approved for a second appraisal.

This time, they decided to run an experiment to see if their suspicions were right and got a white friend to pose as the owner.

They hid photographs and art work and replaced them with their friend’s photos.

‘We had a conversation with one of our white friends, and she said, “No problem. I’ll be Tenisha. I’ll bring over some pictures of my family.” She made our home look like it belonged to her.’

The couple carried out $400,000 of significant renovations in the five years since buying the home including a brand new floor which added 1,000 sq feet of space, a fireplace, new appliances and an outdoor deck.

But when it came to listing the property they found it had increased in the home’s value by just 10 per cent.

The couple bought their home in 2016 and spent $400,000 on renovations

Renovations included a brand new floor which added 1,000 sq feet of space, a fireplace, new appliances and an outdoor deck

The couple had a white friend pose as the owner and hid photographs and art work, replacing them with their friend’s photos

Following a second appraisal, they were shocked to find the home’s value increased by a further $500,000

The Austin family bought their home in 2016 for $550,000

‘I read the appraisal, I looked at the number I was like, “This is unbelievable,” Paul said

Paul believed the low figure was a result of the color of their skin.

‘I read the appraisal, I looked at the number I was like, “This is unbelievable.”‘ Paul said.

‘We did our homework,’ Austin told the Reparations Task Force in a panel on the racial wealth gap in October, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

‘We believe the white lady wanted to devalue our property because we are in a black neighborhood, and the home belongs to a black family.

‘My stomach hurts, my head hurts, just because of what we went through,’ Austin said. ‘I don’t wish that on anybody.

‘I want to see a change. I don’t want to see my children have to deal with this,’ he added.

Marin City, where the Austins live, is a historically black community.

“There are definitely things about this complaint that are uniquely strong,” said an attorney for the couple, Julia Howard-Gibbon, told the Chronicle. ‘They erased themselves from the home, essentially.’

Attorneys for the Austins note: ‘Marin City has a long history of undervaluation based on stereotypes, redlining, discriminatory appraisal standards, and actual or perceived racial demographics.’

Jessica Lautz, from the National Association of Realtors’ vice president of demographics and behavioral insights, said the couple’s case was not unusual.

‘We know discrimination is in nearly every aspect of that home buying process,’ she said. ‘We need to be addressing it as an industry.’

Black home ownership is low across the country, with only 44 percent of black Americans owning their homes in 2021 compared to 74 percent of white Americans according to the area estate firm Redfin.

In the state of California, only 34 percent of black Californians own a home, according to the National Association of Realtors.