refinancing (no cash out) without an in-house appraisal?

[jego914]

Originally Posted by ronron114

Hi,


In my mind, this should seem to cost less than $550 given that less work is done. Would my lender try to pocket anything that is not paid to the appraiser? Is that legal?

I was told the same, but there is a "chance" they may need to come inside the house. I was told that the in-person appraisal needs to be done for over 250k, even if LTV is below 80%. Is this common? Thinking of applying elsewhere if this is not generally the case.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

Originally Posted by ronron114

... I am currently going through a refinance of my home. The lender required a $550 appraisal. In the past, I've paid the same that included a full appraisal. This time around, I was not contacted and was told they only needed an exterior (I presume that means "drive-by") appraisal.

In my mind, this should seem to cost less than $550 given that less work is done. Would my lender try to pocket anything that is not paid to the appraiser? Is that legal?

Did you call your lender and simply ASK them? They are the best ones to know what THEIR policy is. (I'm not being sarcastic, I promise! It just seems like these things vary a LOT, as you can tell from the rest of this post ... )

Originally Posted by jego914

I was told the same, but there is a "chance" they may need to come inside the house. I was told that the in-person appraisal needs to be done for over 250k, even if LTV is below 80%. Is this common? Thinking of applying elsewhere if this is not generally the case.

I think it probably varies tremendously by lenders, and if your lender sells its loans to the secondary market (i.e. they don't keep them and service them themselves), then they must follow the rules for that secondary market. My lender keeps its own loans (one of the reasons I like them!) so they are not subject to the secondary market rules.

My latest loan docs no longer list the $575 appraisal fee, which was for a full appraisal -- just notes that the appraisal was waived in my case. I don't know how much the automated appraisal costs from my lender or if they even charge for it at all as I don't yet have the final disclosures (am expecting them very soon -- my loan processor is on vacation).

Jego914, my automated appraisal came up with a value over $250k (as expected), so I don't think that's the criterion at issue here. For me, the main factors allowing an automated appraisal were (a) credit score over 800, (b) 8 years' history with the same lender with no issues at all, (c) LTV less than 60% and no cash out requested, and (d) refinancing into a 15-year loan (and still having a great debt-to-income ratio). Again, though, YMMV.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

It's been a pretty simple process, just a couple of glitches along the way due -- I think -- to the volume of refi's my lender is doing. (EG loan officer told me they were just waiting on the title work ... then the title worker told me she'd emailed the paperwork a week before. Annoying but not horrible.)

I had locked in a rate of 2.5% with half a point (<$800 in my case), but my lender's rate actually went DOWN again, so they gave me the 2.5% rate with NO points, so I'm saving that money. Wasn't sure they'd do it, but I asked and they did, so yay!

Will close on Monday at 4 p.m. It will be nice to be OUT of my 10-year ARM (not quite 2 years left on that) and into a fixed-rate loan. My payment ended up being $1,666.10 (with escrows) so is literally going up just $4/month from my current loan -- even when switching to a 15-year loan. I will keep making extra payments as I definitely want to have it paid off before retirement (hopefully about 7-8 years away, but who knows?!!).

Wishing everyone else a very smooth process too!

[teqp]

We're about to close on our refi early next week. No on site appraisal.