Did You Get an Appraisal to Refinance and Then End up Not Being Able To

We did. It sucked donkey balls because we had to pay for the appraisal and in the end, all the guy did was use the tool they use on Yahoo! to figure out how much the house was worth. I could have done that.

/rant

Anyway. We did try to refinance with lower rates. Our house was at the same price even a few years later, and I forget why but we didn't qualify. I'd have to get my husband to explain it again and I don't feel like putting him in a bad mood. ;-) He doesn't deserve that.

EDIT: Oh oh oh! I remember why! The bank refused to push through our refinancing because we weren't in such a state of default as to put the house into, um... foreclosure. With the program that we did qualify to apply for, by the time we got to the end of it we had to be IN FORECLOSURE for the bank to agree to refinance.

Yes - but it didn't cost us anything. Both times, the lender paid the appraisal fee.

check your local county clerks office to see what homes like yours have sold for - that will give you an idea...or even ask a realtor to let you know what houses have sold for similar to yours..

I would do it to find out what my home is worth and stay positive about the closing!!! Talk to the loan officer....

Do you have a relationship with the realtor that you used when you bought your house? They could probably give you a pretty good idea of what the house would appraise for in this market. We did this when we applied to have our PMI dropped many years ago. I didn't want to spend $300 on the appraisal unless I was sure that we would be in the clear...

Check to see what area houses similar to yours are selling for... if it seems about the same as what you paid, then it might be worth it. The more you can learn about your local hosing market, the more informed a decison you can make and therefore the less the risk will be. In this case, knowledge really is power.

Also check with the bank that holds your mortgage. Sometimes they are willing to waive fees if you stick with them.

Good luck with a tough decision!

We refinanced.
Our house came in $10,000 less than we paid for it.
We had 3 years equity.
We ended up having to come up with an additional $5,000 to keep 20% equity in the home and not have to pay Private Mortgage insurance.
We had money in our savings set aside for things like this... so we paid the closing costs and the extra money.

In the end - we have a 15 year loan - and will pay about $110,000 less in interest compared to our previous 30 year loan at a higher rate.

I'd say - rates are so low (ours was 2.85) that if you can come up with the money, do it.

Check with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to see if your loan is owned by them, if it is you can qualify for a HARP (Home Affordable Refinance Program) regardless of your current loan to value of home. You would go through your current lender for the refinance. They do a streamline refinance with HARP so typically it's just an online value, no appraisal, and even if you are over 80% or 150%, you will qualify as long as you haven't been 30 days late in the last 12 months.

Here are the links to find out if they do own your loan:
www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup and www.freddiemac.com/mymortgage

You should be able to call your current lender and ask them too.

If they don't own your loan then you will be subject to full appraisals and current qualifying criteria like 80% loan to value. I hope your loan is owned by them so you can take advantage of the current rates.

Our house went down over $70 K in under 2 years in Illinois, so we were stuck with the appraisal. We decided to go ahead rather than waste $400. It all feels like a scam. It's not, that I know of, but it just seems that way. Then the closing costs are about $3,000. In a year we'll break even so it's worth it. Got a rate 3.8% or so. Good luck!

Timely question. We just had our appraisal done this week.

We bought our house for $380K almost 7 years ago. Zillows rated our house at $333 and I think another place rated it at $318. Our official appraisal from the bank came back at $377 (needed it to be $340). However, please note that our appraisal came back high because of all the work we have put into the house. We have spent about $50K on home improvements.

Make sure if you do get an appraisal done that they count any home improvements like new windows, heating and air, etc.

Someone also suggested that if you want to get an appraisal without paying $400 to call a real estate agent to get an estimate.

Good luck and also consider a 15 year fixed....that alone saves thousands of dollars in interest!

if you're that close, just look into HARP 2.0, it will allow you to refinance regardless of home to loan value, but i'm not sure if you'll qualify b/c your purchase was after "the bailout"... your home had to have been with fannie or freddie at some point to qualify. we just did ours through HARP 2.0 and we are right at or possibly even a bit below what we owe, our value has dropped by nearly $100K since we purchased 6 years ago :( we didn't have to have an appraisal at all, so it's something you may wanna do a quick search on to see if you qualify - you can enter your address and some basic info online to see if you qualify for HARP 2.0

There are government programs right now called HARP where you can lower your interest rate within your financial institution for no closing costs, appraisal fee, etc. Just call your current mortgage finder to discuss options. My husband and I are realtors and investors and have lowered the interest rate on 4 of our properties. My brother just lowered his by 3% for no cost. It is worth looking into...if this is not an option then absolutely try the refinance. Good luck.

Are you sure you need another appraisal? Did you go throught a bank or a morgage company? I have my mortgage through a bank and had to refinance a few years ago when I divorced to remove my ex's name and consolidate a few things. Then the interest rates dropped. When I discussed refinancing again with my bank I was told if it was within 2 years they didn't require another appraisal so I was able to get the refi and save the appraisal cost. Don't know if this was because of the bank (Associated) or what but it is something to look into. Good Luck!

If it appraises for less, would you be able to come up with some out-of-pocket money to bring with you to closing?

When we bought our house it appraised for $425k. 2 years later we refinanced our $380k mortgage, but it only appraised for $360k. We had to bring more $ with us to the closing, but were still able to do it. It was worth it for us, because we went from 6.25% to 5.125% and still had 28 years to go on our mortgage.

Have your mortgage broker or loan officer do the math to see what you'd have to bring to closing at various scenarios of appraisal, and then see if it is still worth while for you to refinance.

While you COULD use an online tool like Zillow or Trulia, I have heard that they have mixed reviews on how accurate they are. They might give you a VERY general sense, but in our area they estimated low by about $15k versus what our most recent appraisal told us.

How much was your house worth when you purchased it? If it was worth $100,000 and you have a $3,000 margin, that's 3%, so then it may be worth it to go forward with the appraisal. However, it the value was $200,000, that's only 1.5%, then I would say no.

We didn't have to pay for an appraisal. I refinanced through our current mortgage holder. It was our second refi (the value did drop a lot, but we didn't owe nearly the amount so are not underwater). I did tell the mortgage person that I thought it was ridiculous since nothing had changed in the two years since the last refi. Luckily they agreed. It's worth asking them if they *really* need to do something. It probably helped that we have all our savings and investments with this company. But I'd still ask!

BTW, don't forget that if you pay down more principal than you owe, you will reduce your overall interest due by shortening the loan. Just make sure there are no prepayment penalties.

Just call a loan officer. They will have a comp search done with an appraiser. Also if you are with Fannie or Freddie, they have different programs for situations like yours. But you won't know until you call