Good News, Bad News

If you follow me on Twitter, yesterday you got to preview both the good news, and the part where for the second time in my life I wanted to squeeze an appraiser so hard his eyeballs pop out of his head. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The good news is that later this week, we’re going to dig a very, very big hole in the ground.

It would be enough to make me jump for joy, if only I didn’t simultaneously receive an email that the appraisal company valued my house for ten thousand dollars less than I bought it for five years ago.

This is me restraining myself from using the eff word a lot.

Okay, intellectually I understand the necessity of an appraisal. I understand that we’ve been in a helluva financial situation because people were spending too much money on houses, and taking out loans they could never repay. And the houses they bought are now selling for cheap.

But people, I’ve said I’ll sell my house for a price considerably less that what I paid for the house and insane improvements I’ve made to it. And the buyers are willing to pay that price, and feel like they’re getting a good deal. And the bank is willing to loan them them the money (okay, obviously banks will loan anyone money, but they were pre-approved for a considerable amount over the asking price of my house) . But the appraisal company is sitting in the corner of this little party tapping their fingers together and cackling at all of us.

I mean, a house down the street that is covered in old vinyl siding just sold for $10k more than my house was appraised at.

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I just got my ass kicked by vinyl siding.

We’re taking all the necessary steps to get this resolved. Like finding comparable sales in my neighborhood and printing them out to whack the appraiser in the head with them asking for a re-evaluation of the property.

I could use some good vibes from the internet this week… both on not tripping and falling into that bigass hole we’re going to be digging, and on the appraisal company seeing reason.

UPDATE: Thanks to all of  you awesome people who were sending us good vibes yesterday. Unfortunately the appraiser would. not. budge. Something has got to be wrong with the system when my neighbor 5 houses down linoliumed over all his hardwood and sold his house for $20,000 less than mine, and is now determining the worth of my slate floors. We’re still trying to see if we can work out some sort of deal with the buyers, so I’m still typing with my fingers crossed that we come up with a solution that makes financial sense for all of us, because they really are awesome people.

12 Responses

  1. Oh, that SUCKS. We had friends that had the same problem with their house. How are the property values in a neighborhood ever supposed to go up if appraisal companies won’t give any house a value greater than what the one next to it sold for? Good luck with yours!

  2. Sara, you hit the nail on the head. We have a signed purchase agreement and they are pre-approved for significantly more than the sale price, but the bank can’t give them the loan now because of the appraised value, which is twenty thousand less than the purchase price.

    We’re supposed to hear in the next 24 hours if they re-evaluate the property at a higher appraisal rate.

  3. this made me laugh on a day i could use one: : “and on the appraisal company seeing reason.”

    i will offer prayer for this. that appraisal company won’t know what hit them 🙂

  4. Can you ask for a second opinion with another company? Is this appraisal company the only game in town?

    May my positive vibes smack you upside the head (in a good way)!

  5. We went through the same thing two years ago. Even though we have completely remodeled the house our appraiser was lazy and used the three most recent sales in our sub-division to set the value of our house. He just did not care that our home was in like-new condition while the others were old and dated. The good news is, we successfully appealed and had the appraisal adjusted. I hope that yours will work out so well.

  6. SENDING LOTS OF GOOD VIBES!!!!!!! Appraisers SUCK, expecially because a lot of the time they just DRIVE BY and don’t even go inside and just write some number down. Assholes.

  7. All of you are AWESOME. Thanks for all of the good vibes! We still haven’t heard back yet and I’m finding it hard to type with my fingers crossed…

  8. Good Luck! We’ve had two deals that fell through recently due to appraisers having their heads up their asses–you know, using foreclosures as comps, using actives as comps, using houses that don’t have a basement for a comp for a house that does have a basement. Both my boss and I have argued and most of the appraisers wouldn’t budge. I won’t even go into all of the BS they said they don’t include in an appraisal…but my advice to you would be to print out similar comps and I would also see if they can send another appraiser out — perhaps you could split the costs with the buyers? That is, providing they want to get another appraisal.

    I hate real estate sometimes.

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