Thursday, January 26, 2012

Today's Drama

Today's drama started with an email from my mortgage agent. It said that I am pretty much approved for my mortgage, they just need my property tax records for 2011 and the appraiser to sign off on his report that the window is fixed. THE WINDOW IS FIXED??? Gee, it would have been nice if someone had mentioned that the window needed to be fixed for my mortgage to be approved. My realtor says it is a scam for the appraiser to get more money. The appraiser writes that the value of the home is dependent on the window being fixed and then the appraiser gets $100 more for updating the report when the window gets fixed. Why couldn't they just take $100 off the value of the house for the window?

A note was sent off to the appraiser asking if the wording could be changed but I don't expect it to be changed. So, I called Speedy Glass and got a quote for $108 to replace the glass tomorrow morning. It seems weird to be fixing someone else's house but since I am buying the house "as-is" the seller isn't going to do any repairs and I don't want $108 + $100 for appraisal update (grumble grumble) to keep me from getting this house after all I have been through.

Also, the appraisal came in at $92k. Back in September Zillow said the house was worth $105k. Now Zillow says $95k but Zillow doesn't know that the furnace doesn't work. Housing prices are still dropping but I think they are near the bottom. It is still worth slightly more than what I am paying so thankfully that won't interfere with getting my mortgage.

Now I know a lot of people have told me that buying a house is nerve-wracking and confusing but I didn't really understand until now. One good thing though, the second bank for the house finally sent us their approval letter with the February 15th closing date on it so I think I can mark that date on my calendar now.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

FYI - the appraiser isn't doing this for the money, only a small percentage of the fee normally goes to the appraiser. I typically get $25 of the $125 for a recert and even though it might sound like a lot of money for nothing, most recerts need to be done asap to meet an underwriting or closing deadline. It doesn't matter if I already have appointments scheduled on the other side of the state, they will always want the original appraiser to certify the conditions have been met. A recert can take me half a day if I wasn't already planning to be in the area and there is always one more thing they need. I can overlook a lot of small indoor repairs but if a repair shows up in the pictures then there is nothing I can do about it other than try to say it does not effect the market value or functionality of the dwelling, and clearly this would. In the bank's mind though, someone would offer $100 less for a house with a broken window than one without(cost of repair) so it effects value. And of course a broken window effects functionality and might be cause for a delay in obtaining home owners insurance. P.S. I don't think your neighbor broke the window, most likely it was someone testing to see if the windows were alarmed before breaking in to steal copper and other salvagables, happens all the time to vacant houses.
Finally, please be sure to purchase title insurance, it is well worth the money and very important to have when buying an REO or short sale, you never know what kind of claims will come out of the woodwork years from now. In my market, it is typical for a broker to pay for it as a gift to the buyer but with a short sale your broker is likely earning less than the usual fee. You can ask her but don't count on it. And again, I am not sure how it works with your lender but most require a year's prepaid HO policy and any agent doing the pre-inspection would have required the window repair, so better you have a little time to find a contractor of your choice.

Anonymous said...

Bet you're getting excited now eh. Hope it all goes really well for you and you have lots of nice animal friendly neighbours. I thought house buying was complicated here in the UK but it sounds even more nerve wracking where you are!Very interesting to see how different where you live I can't imagine having snakes in my garden.Julie ( Arnold, Nottingham , UK)

Anonymous said...

Woo Hoo February 15!

Miss France

Lizzie @ her homeworld said...

I think it was much better when things were a bit dull!

Daizy said...

Well, if they were testing the alarm how come they didn't go in when the alarm didn't go off?

I've never had an homeowner's insurance agent do an inspection. I wonder if they do that here. They didn't mention needing to see the house when I talked to them.

Daizy said...

Julie, I hope I can snake proof my new yard. I don't want to go through another dog being bitten. It is too awful.

Daizy said...

Miss France, it is getting exciting now! So much to do.

Daizy said...

Lizzie, yes, I can't wait to get all settled in to the new place and have a dull day there. Maybe I could do some laundry for the fun of it!