Anyone refinance in Duval or Clay County? (sales, mortgage)

[titaniummd]

I am looking into refinancing my Mortgage since the rates are very good. However, my concern is what the appraisal will be. Is there a good rule of thumb on guessing how much your house is worth? I paid the 20% to avoid the PMI before. However, I do not want to have to pay that 20% again.

What are your experiences?

[stevep]

You need to look at the sales in your neighborhood within the last 3-6 months. If there are several sales, use the sales that are closest in square footage to your home.

[riveree]

This estimator is quite accurate. It pulls from various sites such as zillow, etc. and compiles a number that is usually spot-on:

Chase Home Mortgage - Home Financing - Home Value

You might want to pull your home value now so you can start your numbers, then pull it again just before you apply (in case there is a change). It's completely free.

Your current lender should be able to tell you what your options are and what your loan to value might be.

[titaniummd]

Wow! That is a very good link. It even shows a graphical trend of home prices over time.

Thank you.

[EricBoyd]

Be VERY careful with anything that might use Zillow for data compilation. I find them to be very inaccurate, sometimes as much as 20%. And, when you're dealing with your own money and whether you'll have to pay PMI, get your info from someone who uses real live data. The lender will send an actual appraiser to get a much more accurate representation of value than what you can get from an computer-generated figure.

[Rae the Chef]

Eric, 20% too high or 20% too low?

[EricBoyd]

Both high and low. That service isn't something you can really automate. Valuation must have human involvement.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by EricBoyd

Be VERY careful with anything that might use Zillow for data compilation...

Originally Posted by riveree

This estimator is quite accurate. It pulls from various sites such as zillow, etc. and compiles a number that is usually spot-on:

I thought this might come up, so I'll expand. As I stated above, the Chase site pulls from various sites including zillow, but zillow being only one. It also pulls from tax roll data, as an appraiser or a realtor would do, and other sources as well (6 or 8 in total, I forget the exact #). This is the site that Chase bank uses and they're a well-respected bank.

As I understood, Titanium only wants to get an idea of value in order to prepare for the call to the lender. At the end of the day, it's your lender who's going to determine the value you can borrow against, but this site will get you very close .

I tracked zillow, trulia, the duval county property apppraiser, MLS, and just about anything else I could find when I sold a house last year and zillow was very accurate in value. They're getting better, but nothing is perfect of course .

[Rae the Chef]

Originally Posted by riveree

This estimator is quite accurate. It pulls from various sites such as zillow, etc. and compiles a number that is usually spot-on:

Chase Home Mortgage - Home Financing - Home Value

You might want to pull your home value now so you can start your numbers, then pull it again just before you apply (in case there is a change). It's completely free.

Your current lender should be able to tell you what your options are and what your loan to value might be.

That was depressing. Why the hell did I even look it up?

[riveree]

Originally Posted by Rae the Chef

That was depressing. Why the hell did I even look it up?

I know!