How nitpicky are house appraisals for a conventional loan?

[BamaTanya]

We've moved into my parents' old house, finally sold our old house, and applied for our new mortgage last week.

 

I felt a sense of relief. At first.

 

Now I'm worried about the repairs we've been putting off until we own the house and we can know exactly what our budget will be.

 

I know we need to replace some bathroom tiles and a toilet. I know we need to paint some fascia boards. Some floor and door trim is missing in the game room. We pulled up carpeting (there was a washer backup before we moved in) and are dealing with the concrete slab in the dining room.

 

The money/time we had went into getting the other house sold. :glare:

 

I've been content with this "in process" status, but someone said this week, "You'd better get the house ready for the appraisal."

 

???

 

The house is probably worth $20K+ more than the selling price. Does that make a difference?

 

We're hoping to take our time and pay as we go to get things the way we'd really like them. Eventually. :tongue_smilie:

[milovany]

When we tried to sell a house a couple of years ago, the appraiser used the house inspection form. They never even came in the house. (Which actually worked against us, but that's another story!).

 

On this house purchase, the appraiser didn't come inside either that I recall. All they had us fix was some chipping paint on the exterior of the house, and an outbuilding.

 

But it's really just going to depend, you know? You could ask around about how it's gone for others. Maybe if you paid for a house inspection, that might help -- if the inspector rates it positively. Then you can tell the bank/appraiser that you had a (paid) inspection done recently and can the appraiser use that?

 

Just thinking out loud ...

[chicagoshannon]

We had our house appraised last fall. Now our house is only 7 years old so nothing needing repair, BUT we feel the appraiser was very generous with the price he came up with. It came in for less then we paid for it but still more then we expected/needed for the mortgage. (we refinanced)

 

Make sure the house is clean. Maybe some furniture in front of areas that may need some work. The appraiser won't move furniture to look.

[Samiam]

We had an appraiser come this last week (we are renting, guess the owner is refinancing or something).

 

She came in, went from room to room, measure the rooms with this fancy laser measuring device, drew out the floor plan. Was in the house about 10 minutes. Upstairs and downstairs.

 

Then she went outside, not sure what she was doing, just told us she would be poking around in the bushes for a few minutes.

 

Not sure if she looked for "issues" or what. The house doesn't have many anyway, but I guess she would have spoken to the owner about it if it did.

[Cindyg]

Biting my fingernails right along with you, Bama. I am going to be so disappointed if we don't get to refinance.

[MindyD]

I pretty sure it's just about square footage, room number and size, and any special features such as hardwood floors.

[Margo out of lurking]

..

[songbirdie]

We had 2 different appraisers appraise the same house. The appraisals were about $15K apart. The first man made comments about things like chipped paint on woodwork on doorjams, 1 plug gone from a bathroom sink, a screw missing from a lightswitch plate, and on and on with tiny things like that which would hardly take any money at all to fix. The second man didn't even seem to care about any of those things. He just measured and took pictures and sent us the appraisal. There is no way in the world that the repairs the first man listed were worth $15k!!! According to a friend of ours in the business, it all has to do with which houses they use in the area as their "comparables" because that determines how much money per square foot they are going to appraise if for. Maybe it all depends on who comes out to do your appraisal? Sorry, I know this was not a helpful post at all. :confused:

[LizzyBee]

IME, appraisers don't even go inside the house. They are looking at overall space and construction quality, not details and cosmetics.

Edited July 27, 2011 by LizzyBee

[Berta]

The appraiser we used for our house did a "drive by", he never got out of his car.

[mrs.m]

I pretty sure it's just about square footage, room number and size, and any special features such as hardwood floors.

 

:iagree:And they compare to other homes nearby (past appraisals and sales). It should not be like a home inspection. If it is, get a second opinion.

[G5052]

One time the guy knocked on the door and asked to see the first floor, but he was in the house all of maybe 2 minutes and was I think just assessing general condition.

 

The other four times they knocked on the door, but just said they'd walk around outside and measure.

[wapiti]

Well, in the "good old" days they did not come in. However, things have changed. We refinanced through Wells Fargo last summer and they certainly did come in, and the pictures of my messy house are in the report. They were looking at finishes. That said, the short sales and foreclosures in the neighborhood took the big toll. We think the appraisal was very conservative.

[Momof3littles]

I think it was more casual for us in the past, but I remember buying our very first house about a decade ago, and they measured the rooms at that time.

 

We bought a new home earlier this year and the home inspector did come in and measure room sizes, etc.

[speedmom4]

Last November we refinanced our house. An appraiser came and looked in every room, basement, and even the attic. We spruced things up a bit but nothing major. I'm not sure those things mattered. He was measuring space. I'm sure he was also looking at finishes like hardwood vs. carpet, granite vs. formica.

 

Hope your inspection goes well!

 

God Bless,

Elise in NC

[Dobela]

It depends on who is financing the loan. We qualified for a VA loan so the appraiser walked the entire perimeter of our property, went under the house, all thru the house, and asked lots of questions about any upgrades the previous owner made. My dad said he had never seen an appraisal that thorough.

[Momling]

Our bank had some requirements before we got our loan which included:

-rebuilding the deck

-removing the non-epa certified woodstove

-cutting back bushes from the exterior wall of the house

-putting a railing on an open loft

 

We were able to tell the inspector when he returned that we wanted to do a more professional job than the one week would have allowed and we promised to complete the job this summer, so he signed off on it. The other tasks we did.

 

Also, my parents were told they have to take moss off of their roof in order to get their mortgage.

[gardenmom5]

We've moved into my parents' old house, and applied for our new mortgage last week.

 

Now I'm worried about the repairs we've been putting off until we own the house and we can know exactly what our budget will be.

 

I know we need to replace some bathroom tiles and a toilet. I know we need to paint some fascia boards. Some floor and door trim is missing in the game room. We pulled up carpeting (there was a washer backup before we moved in) and are dealing with the concrete slab in the dining room.

 

someone said this week, "You'd better get the house ready for the appraisal."

The house is probably worth $20K+ more than the selling price. Does that make a difference?

 

right now, as far as the bank is concerned, the selling price is the market value. The bigger question is what's the difference between market value and loan amount? all the bank wants to know is if they'll get their money back.

 

We've had quite a few appraisals over the years as we've refinanced many times, sometimes requiring multiple appraisals because things took too long to close and the apprasial became outdated. (the most recent was last month). My husband has also been into many real estate loan files when employed by banks. the appraiser represents the bank and they are looking for marketability, and loan to market ratio.

 

Things that obviously need to be fixed and could kill a sale are flags.

paint is cheap - and a fresh coat where needed will make a huge difference in appearance.

molding for a door or two to match existing should be installed.

can you paint/stain (there are paint/stains expressly for use on concrete floors. some high end homes even have them deliberatly.) the concrete and throw an area rug (carpet remnant with bound edges - cheap) down in the dining room for now? I would have prominently placed carpet/flooring samples on the table.

 

You don't "have" to do those things, but you'll get a higher appraisal if you do.

[KrissiK]

We had ours appraised a while back for a re-fi and he was pretty easy on us. He even got stung by a wasp on our property and was pretty cool about it.

[Trish]

We did a refi in December. The guy definitely came in, took pictures, was VERY thorough. They appraised our house at LESS per square foot than another house in the neighborhood that had been recently been gutted by renters before being sold at a bargain basement rate. Fortunately we had enough equity to still complete the refi, but, wow.

 

Also, we cleaned up so it was IMMACULATE. We even temporarily rented a storage unit so it would look spacious and show-worthy, like you would if you were selling it. No clutter ANYWHERE, I'm not even sure what I did with my fridge magnets!

 

Just our experience. I hope yours is better!