Anybody Re-financing?

**Lane Meyer** · 03-20-2009, 04:32 PM

So we have our appraisal this weekend. Never been through this before. How important are the cleanliness of our house and carpet (which we are replacing this summer)? It wasn't our house the last time it was appraised....any tips? Advice?

**Stone-Free** · 03-20-2009, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by Lane Meyer

So we have our appraisal this weekend. Never been through this before. How important are the cleanliness of our house and carpet (which we are replacing this summer)? It wasn't our house the last time it was appraised....any tips? Advice?

Some appraisers are assholios about walking in to a cluttered house. Good appraisers picture the house without all their personal property and other shit and find similar comparables in like condition. A really nice house that has lots of clutter could be an indicator of deferred maintenance which can make an appraiser start poking around for other things that may have an adverse effect on value, especially for FHA loans where the appraisers 'inspection' is a whole lot more involved. PM me if you have some specific questions.

**Lane Meyer** · 03-20-2009, 05:17 PM

Interesting. Our house is in great shape, the only "bad" thing is that it came with 13-year old white carpet that we were going to tear out after winter....there's very little clutter, we keep it pretty neat. We also repainted and replaced most of the major appliances and the place is only 15 years old anyway.

Hopefully they will see Gunder's rad star trail photo on the wall and the value of the house will go up instantly.

Seriously though this apparently has a big impact on what we can/can't do with the refi, the news is full of horror stories of how down the market is in CA, hopefully we are somewhat insulated in Truckee but we shall see. We only bought the place in August so I can't believe it would have tanked that much since then, but you never know. The short sale across the street with the same ft2 (albeit in terrible shape, pea green, and 35 years older) is listed at 325k!

**Bastard Bob** · 03-20-2009, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by Lane Meyer

the news is full of horror stories of how down the market is in CA, hopefully we are somewhat insulated in Truckee but we shall see. We only bought the place in August so I can't believe it would have tanked that much since then, but you never know.

Had my Truckee house appraised late February- report took about a week. The Appraiser told me Truckee has not taken as big a hit as many other areas- only down about 17% from peak. Wednesday we locked at 4.875 with 0 points for 30 years. Very stoked considering the inflation Obamanomics will soon be igniting...

**Stone-Free** · 03-20-2009, 05:39 PM

Originally Posted by Lane Meyer

The short sale across the street with the same ft2 (albeit in terrible shape, pea green, and 35 years older) is listed at 325k!

Short sales or REO's should have no impact on the value of our home unless there are a few of them in your immediate market area that are driving down the prices. A good appraiser will address any adverse market conditions and adjust accordingly for them. I do a lot of appraisal reviews on other appraisers that do not mention jack shit about a declining market when market data says a whole other thing.

**Lane Meyer** · 03-20-2009, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by Bastard Bob

Had my Truckee house appraised late February- report took about a week. The Appraiser told me Truckee has not taken as big a hit as many other areas- only down about 17% from peak. Wednesday we locked at 4.875 with 0 points for 30 years. Very stoked considering the inflation Obamanomics will soon be igniting...

Jeeze - 4.875 with zero points? Who was your lender? We're getting 4.875-4.6% with 1 point! (We'll actually get whatever it is in two weeks, probably, as I bet it takes that long to get all the shit together).

**Bastard Bob** · 03-20-2009, 07:23 PM

We did a 15 day lock on Wed. Rates have ticked up a tad since then. It helped that we pre-qualified including the appraisal so we could just wait for rates to hit our target.

If you're looking for a good broker to work with, PM me and I give you the numbers for a ski buddy of mine who has done us right on 3 prior loans.

**peterslovo** · 12-18-2009, 02:34 PM

Guess it's time to bump this thread...

Rates are very good right now.

Just locked in a 4.875% rate, no points, for a conventional 30 yr refinance.

This is in Maine. Best I've seen in awhile.

**rconstan** · 12-18-2009, 03:07 PM

I got lucky and hit the two days in January at 4.75%, 30 years locked with no points. But the process was absurd, it easily took about 8 weeks to finally be approved for the refinance.

**F#*k you cat** · 12-18-2009, 03:14 PM

Our Refi was a big PAIN

Started process 10-15
Locked 11-11
closed yesterday 12/17

4.5 fixed 30 year with cash out (paid off a higher interest Home Equity Loan)
1200 flat rate to the refi guy 3/4 of a point is what it ended up being.
zero discount points

had a issue with a appraisal coming in low. 270k Oct 2009 verses 300K Jan 09.

lost the waiver for the escrow. 405.00

psyked on the rate.....could of done without the PAIN in the ASS

**Stone-Free** · 12-18-2009, 04:54 PM

^^^thats a sick deal.

Well done.

**Mofro261** · 12-18-2009, 05:10 PM

God our refi was a PITA but there were some circumstances that made it so- we wanted to subvert our HELOC to keep it open (no real balance, just didn't want to lose access to 100k @ 3.8% at the moment in an uncertain economy) and avoid having to apply for one again. Jumbo locked 4.75 0.5pts 4.83 apr 04/09 FINALLY closed 9/16/09. Almost six goddamn months and it was through the company my wife works for.