The Drive-by Appraisal

We supplied our credit union with all that fun paperwork prior to the April 19th deadline and have been (im)patiently waiting ever since for them to conduct their title search and do an appraisal to back up our layperson's estimate of what our house and property are worth.

Today we got our answer. Let's do a little math, shall we? A realtor friend of ours estimated the market value of our home as X. To be conservative, we estimated our home's value at 10% less than X. The lender's appraiser calculated the value at 24% less than X. There is a big difference of opinion there, wouldn't you say? Of course, the only one that matters is the official appraiser's because he or she was hired by the credit union and that's the data they care about.

We've requested the appraiser's report, which should arrive by mail tomorrow or Monday, so we can see exactly what elements of the home and property were taken into account--what were the positive features? what were the detractors? We know our house is not perfect by any means, or we wouldn't want to remodel it, would we? But the .76X value that came back from the appraiser is the approximate sale prices of a home around the corner that had to be gutted when the new owners bought it a year ago. Our house is a bit cluttered (OK, a lot cluttered), and the dog's toenails have dug little paths into the hardwood floors in spots, but it doesn't exactly need to be gutted or we wouldn't be living here.

So we'll see what the report says and go from there. If they won't budge on their appraisal value, we'll reconfigure our project to fit the new financial situation, but it'd sure be nice to just be able to tackle the whole shebang and get it over with. I'm glad this drive-by wasn't of the shooting variety, but it sure was shocking nonetheless.