The Appraisal

The appraisal came back with the value of our house down approximately 3.3% from the 2007 appraisal when we purchased the house.  This seems very fair to me.  Our neighborhood has gone down roughly 12% since 2007, as have most neighborhoods in the Seattle area.  Handy Man is not as satisfied.  I knew this would happen.  I knew he would work his ass off on the house for months and be disappointed, but I was really hoping to be wrong.

There is even more to be disappointed about.  The whole time we've been going through this process of refinancing our house both Handy Man and I were under the impression that we would be able to refinance a portion of our loan and restructure the remaining portion.  In fact this is not true.  All along we needed the house to appraise at 5% OVER what we purchased it for.  That was never made clear to us.  The financial officer kept throwing numbers around, but never one that high.  This is a huge disappointment, especially for Handy Man who was really counting on refinancing.

The financial officer is appealing the appraisal, for what purpose I'm not sure.  The value of the house is not going up 8% because of an appeal.  The days of over pricing houses to qualify for loans is over.  I also feel like the days of "waiting it out" are over too.  I don't anticipate housing prices to climb like they have in years past.

I'm letting Handy Man wallow in his sorrow for a couple days then we will talk about other options.  We do have another house we can sell, one we don't owe too much money on, one he wanted to use for retirement income.  One that I never wanted to keep in the first place.  One that we were supposed to sell all along.  One that will enable us to get out of the ARM loan we are in AND have money left for investing in retirement. 

Now I have to talk Handy Man into it... Wish me luck.

Comments

[The Incerdible Woody]

That really sucks!!

Just mention your idea in passing. Then wait a few days and let him "think" of it himself!

[Lisa]

I understand your frustration. We just got word that our request for load modification was denied because, get this, the mortgage company doesn't see the fact that both my husband and I are unemployed (both outsourced in the past year) is a reason for modifying our loan. They said if we were behind in payments, they could help us, but since we've made the payment so far, "unemployment doesn't justify changing the terms of your loan." Sheesh!

That's great you have other properties to help get you out of the bind. Good luck!

[Lisa]

That's supposed to be LOAN modification (not load). :o)

[Liz C.]

I agree totally with Woody. It's always best to sprinkle the inklings of a good idea so that they think it was really their idea.

But, good luck...

[Rachel]

Oh seriously!?!? What a bummer!!! 3% doesn't sound like a lot, but it is!! Hopefully things get a boost soon!