Buying a house....Appraisal came back lower!!!! Ugghh. (sale, mortgage)

[twobums]

Chicken Wing ~ I tend to agree with College Guy. Rather than trying to artificially inflate the value, consider this a gift.

As of Dec '08, appraisals have become much more reliable. It could very well be that the appraiser is simply doing his/her job properly.

Here is a link explaining new guidelines:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/bu.../24fannie.html

Again, I am very sorry this is not working out as you had planned.

[hiknapster]

I would NEVER advise a client to try to get the appraisal up in this kind of market. NEVER. That is ridiculous. It is what caused this disaster to begin with.

I don't care if the house is painted in 24k gold, if the appraiser says it is worth $20,000 less, then it is. When I bought my house (in TN) I walked in having $15,000 equity because I got a good deal. That is a wonderful feeling.

There are thousands of people in swFlorida right now that are upside down on their mortgages and sick about it. They are in a horrible position. Don't knowingly and willingly put yourself in the same place.

And always, always remember that buying real estate is not an emotional endeavor. It is a business transaction. Nothing more. If you let it be something else you can pay very dearly.

[hiknapster]

I just checked market trends in San Carlos Park and I still see that they are dropping. The only reason that they have any movement is because the prices are coming down. This is an area where there are a lot of HELOCs and it is becoming a problem.

Fort Myers average and median listing prices - Trulia.com

[SoFLGal]

The appraisers are being very careful on the comparable properties that they use. The bank (Fannie) would have had the Realtor that listed the home and another Realtor independent of the listing do a BPO (brokers price opinion) when the home was listed. Fannie usually has homes priced pretty competitively. Occasionally our banks will lower the price if there are issues with the home and every 30 days we are required to do a new evaluation on the home to see how it compares to other similar homes in the neighborhood. You can usually count on a reduction every 30, 60 , 90 days and so on. If it sits on the market too long often times the bank will send it to auction.

You could have your Realtor look over the comps that the appraiser used but from what I have been seeing lately they have been pretty right on. I always pull comps on a property and sit down and go over with my buyers what has sold in the neighborhood lately so they can make an educated offer. That way you usually don't end up in a mess like this. I have been hearing though more and more about properties not appraising out.

The bank will probably ask the listing Realtor for direction and comps. They will want to know how many showings they have had and will probably go over all the data to evaluate the situation. You should ask your Realtor to approach the list Realtor with the appraisal. Many banks don't won't deal with FHA loans because of the stringent requirements-i.e. water tests, etc and other hoops that you have to jump through.

I totally agree with Hik's comment post #22.

Good luck with it, hope it works out for you!

[Ruby24]

The problem is if your appraisal comes in lower the seller probably won't renegotiate. He or she will just wait for a cash buyer who doesn't need or care about an appraisal. Investors are snatching up all the good homes that are coming out of foreclosure.

[twobums]

A cash buyer would never pay $20K more for a house than what it is worth.

The reason a cash buyer has cash is because they are too smart to over pay for real estate.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by twobums

A cash buyer would never pay $20K more for a house than what it is worth.

The reason a cash buyer has cash is because they are too smart to over pay for real estate.

Exactly.

[Chicken Wing]

The following is from my fiance. She posted this in the NC forum under my account by accident. Any advice is appreciated:

Have a contract on a house-mysteriously went from "under contract" to "just listed" Never notified......
I am a first time home buyer. Put in a bid on a foreclosure. Bid was accepted within a week. Contracts signed. Earnest money paid. Inspection paid. Appraisal done. House came in 20K under contracted price. My realtor did own comps and came in around appraised price. Selling agent agreed. I was initially told selling bank may not come down 20K. I was told to wait for "negotiations". A week later, told me they would come down. Waited for addendum. A week after no paperwork, was told probably not going to come down. Meanwhile, this house on every site I checked read "pending sale" and "under contract". This week (2 weeks after notice of appraisal and refusal to accept or not accept) the house has been updated to "just listed". They have my money. I shelled out for inspections and appraisal and it has been "just listed" for the masses. After sending a number of frustrating emails to everyone involved with this transaction, I was told the selling agent doesn't control the MLS status. Is this true? Also, my contract is coincidently about to expire if I do not have loan commitment by the middle of next week. This seems all too convenient since the seller can't seem to make up their mind. Can someone please help me make sense of all this? Is there legal action I should be taking if my contract expires or the fact that my house has been relisted without my knowlegde and a signed contract with earnest deposit has been had?

[hiknapster]

I am not an attorney. I am not a licensed agent in the state of North Carolina. I can only tell you that I belong to my local MLS in Tennessee and even though I can notify them to put "under contract" or "new listing," I don't actually do it. The MLS does, so a mistake can be made.

I understand that your agent discussed that with you, but you did not say what she told you regarding your earnest money.

I am also confused. Did they accept your offer or not? They either do or they don't.

What do you mean that your contract expires? Do you mean that you are waiting for them to accept the offer and the time limit is next week? Or do you mean that the closing is next week?

Originally Posted by Chicken Wing

The following is from my fiance. She posted this in the NC forum under my account by accident. Any advice is appreciated:

Have a contract on a house-mysteriously went from "under contract" to "just listed" Never notified......
I am a first time home buyer. Put in a bid on a foreclosure. Bid was accepted within a week. Contracts signed. Earnest money paid. Inspection paid. Appraisal done. House came in 20K under contracted price. My realtor did own comps and came in around appraised price. Selling agent agreed. I was initially told selling bank may not come down 20K. I was told to wait for "negotiations". A week later, told me they would come down. Waited for addendum. A week after no paperwork, was told probably not going to come down. Meanwhile, this house on every site I checked read "pending sale" and "under contract". This week (2 weeks after notice of appraisal and refusal to accept or not accept) the house has been updated to "just listed". They have my money. I shelled out for inspections and appraisal and it has been "just listed" for the masses. After sending a number of frustrating emails to everyone involved with this transaction, I was told the selling agent doesn't control the MLS status. Is this true? Also, my contract is coincidently about to expire if I do not have loan commitment by the middle of next week. This seems all too convenient since the seller can't seem to make up their mind. Can someone please help me make sense of all this? Is there legal action I should be taking if my contract expires or the fact that my house has been relisted without my knowlegde and a signed contract with earnest deposit has been had?

[Synergy1]

Originally Posted by Chicken Wing

My fiancee and I trying to buy a house in San Carlos Park. We're doing an FHA mortgage on a Fannie Mae foreclosed property. Everything was going well and we agreed on a price (under 100K) with the seller and everything was great until the stupid appraisal came back yesterday about 20K lower than the purchase price!

Our mortgage person said that we had a few options:

1. Try to get the seller to lower the price.
2. Pay the difference in cash (we can't do this).
3. Cancel the loan and not buy the house.
4. Find a good reason why the value should be increased and try to make a strong case to the appraiser. It sounds like that the appraiser usually doesn't budge much on this, though.

So, my question is......how often does the seller drop the price to meet the appraisal? We're talking about 20K here.

The broker is off base when they ask the appraiser to increase the price. It is called Fraud and we can never tolerate that kind of practices. Good luck and I really think you will find a property that will be in your price range...Good luck

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