Potential Home Buyers Beware

[Thomas Merton]

I'm trying to buy a house, have a great loan and cash ready to go, but I've had to walk away from 2 contracts because of low appraisals. I guess out of town people are being used to keep lenders and appraisers at arm's length so homes dont magically appraise at the price the lender/seller wants. I'm just not willing to pay above appraisal price in this economy.

If you have an FHA or VA loan, they wont lend you one penny more than the appraisal.

I would recommend you get the appraisal done first before the home inspection, that was a $400 dollar lesson I'm giving to you free.

Maybe I'll just live in my RV, much simpler.

[ToiletCrusher]

Address: Wherever the road takes you.

[boosterp]

I am about a year away from building on my 3/4 acre lot here in town. I paid out the ass for the lot with a separate loan (when I was wealthy and working). My VA loan will go to actual construction of the house. The main fear with a VA loan is the $10k or 10% you must have up front plus the VA approved appeasers must give their stamp of approval.

Edit: Taxes are not a concern. I am a disabled vet with a 70% rating, I will pay about a quarter of the total tax due each year to include when it is built.

[TNABuffalo]

I would recommend you get the appraisal done first before the home inspection, that was a $400 dollar lesson I'm giving to you free.



No offense but no shit......how did you not know this?

[Thomas Merton]

Bad realtor?

[MisterSmith]

Another big problem is Realtors not doing their "homework" and not having the sellers properly adjust prices for altered appraisal values. Many Realtors (who don't really know their craft) try to keep the price inflated in order to keep the seller happy and blindly hoping to sucker in some uneducated buyers. But that is just a poor business practice in this market. It is also a big reason so many houses are staying on the market for weeks or months longer than they should.

And your Realtor really should have suggested the appraisal before anything else, especially knowing the kind of financing terms you are bound by, the condition of the market, and the trends in that particular neighborhood.

[biggirl]

We tried to refinance into a (obviously) lower interest rate and bump it down to a 15 year loan....our appraisal came back too low....I was so pissed! Actually, I am still pissed!

I would like to move into our camper too...so much easier to keep clean and leaves much more time to spend outside goofing off.