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Christine's Blog: Refinancing Headaches (5/12/09)
Christine hits a frustrating roadblock while refinancing her home mortgage.
Hi everyone! I hope you had a good week. Last week proved to be a pretty good rental week for me. I made a few bookings to further close the gap on open weeks I had left.
So, want to know what's going on with my refinance? Well, let's just say the Novocain has officially worn off. I heard back from my bank, and apparently the appraisal came in lower than we needed it to. Now, let me paint a clear picture here: I don't think I'm being unrealistic about the value of my home.
I know this is tough economic environment, but market conditions aside, the appraisers are supposed to compare the value of your home with other homes that have sold (not just been put on the market) within the past 6 months. When I called my real estate agent and asked her to pull the comps for me, she found there were three houses that sold in my neighborhood in the past three months — not six months, but three months!
Not to mention, all three of those houses in my neighborhood that sold:
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are smaller in square footage
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on significantly smaller lots
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not in the cul-de-sac
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don't have a three-car garage
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don't have a swimming pool (which is a big deal in the Texas heat!)
And those homes all sold for MORE per square foot than my appraised amount. I am really ticked off! I think the bank is doing anything they can to not lend me the money at these historically low rates. Urgh…nothing is ever easy!
So I'll keep you posted on the continuing saga of refinancing my home.
Happy renting!
Christine
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Have you refinanced your vacation home recently? How has the process gone for you?
"Christine is absolutely right! The banks are using the low-ball appraisals as their excuse not to re-finance otherwise highly qualified borrowers at today's historically low rates. We had a similar experience in southern California. As a Realtor, I was able to provide actual SOLD comps in the past 3 months that would support a much higher fair market appraisal. And now it is not legal in California for mortgage brokers to choose appraisers or have any contact with them, so the Lender controls the entire process. Banks, feeling comfortable with the tax payer TARP money on their balance sheets, are choosing not to lend and are using unfair low appraisals to justify their lending practices. Unfortunately some homeowners faced with the inability to re-finance and take advantage of the low rates will be forced to sell in a down market adding to the housing inventory a nd putting further downward pressure on home prices." -Mireya, La Jolla, CA (HomeAway #131800, VRBO #30556, VacationRentals.com #52894)
"Christine, I just read your blog today, and I just did what you did, last week I lowered my real estate taxes by over 40%. There is this great website: ww.appraiserguide.com I went on it, you can choose an appraiser anywhere in the USA. all you got to do is send him an order. it cost me $275, he gave me a value for my rental, I took the appraisal to the city and guess what, if you have an appraisal from a certified appraiser, they won't ask you a question, they will just adjust your assessed value to what actually it is now!! I am sure most of the owners there will appreciate that, especially that this website covers all of the US !! Good luck." -Ricardo, Miami Beach, FL (VRBO #133378)
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© Copyright 2009 Christine Karpinski
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