anyone put a contract on a house and the bank appraisal come back too low?

[Anonymous]

Banks use faraway appraisers these days who don't know a damn thing about the actual neighborhoods they're evaluating.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070806803.html

This just happened to my in-laws (buyers). They were the only offer and got the sellers to come down to the appraised price. It also happened to some friends (sellers) a few months ago -- the buyers couldn't make up the difference and our friends didn't want to sell at that price, so the deal fell through and now they're renting the place. Sucks. Ridiculous.

It infuriates me that a few years ago this industry was hurling shady mortgages at anyone who picked up a phone to ask for one, and appraising at any damn price to get the sale done, and now all of a sudden they're acting like "oh, dear me, we have to be so prudent." If they hadn't been such greedy unethical creeps in the first place, they/we wouldn't be in this mess.

[Anonymous]

PP here: both my neighbor (after getting an appraisal about 15% lower than the contract price), and myself (after getting the same on a refi) put together a packet of about two dozen comparables in a print-out and gave it to the appraiser when he came to the house.

Since a lot of these guys are completely out of their element, and humans are intrinsically lazy creatures, sometimes it pays to do the work for them.

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of these appraisers just go with whatever is on zillow, seriously. And as we all know, zillow can be waaaay off base, in both directions. Fuck, every time a house sells in my neighborhood for a progressively higher price, my zestimate goes down.

[Anonymous]

I got an appraisal in Vienna (town) for about $45k *over* what I paid for the place (May '08). Or did I come in at the near-precise bottom of the market? (I saw a few short sale ramblers going for $400-$450 and the legit ones were going $450-$500 back then.)

The guy's appraisal showed ramblers in town selling for between $450k (for the ones screaming "teardown!") and $530k (for the all-brick ones that were slightly bigger or had even more stuff/renovations.)

That, and it seems the appraisal back in '08 said only 20% of the basement was finished when in reality it's more like 75%.

Actually got me a hair over 80% LTV in my refinance, which I hope to close on Thursday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got an appraisal in Vienna (town) for about $45k *over* what I paid for the place (May '08). Or did I come in at the near-precise bottom of the market? (I saw a few short sale ramblers going for $400-$450 and the legit ones were going $450-$500 back then.)

The guy's appraisal showed ramblers in town selling for between $450k (for the ones screaming "teardown!") and $530k (for the all-brick ones that were slightly bigger or had even more stuff/renovations.)

That, and it seems the appraisal back in '08 said only 20% of the basement was finished when in reality it's more like 75%.

Actually got me a hair over 80% LTV in my refinance, which I hope to close on Thursday.

I am in 22182, so a Vienna address, but outside town limits. I think the bottom in this area was sometime in '08 to '09, but you might have hit it when you bought. But values have definitely been going up around here. Good properties are snapped up quick. Congrats on your refi! Thank god you had an appraiser with a fully functioning brain, at least!