If you follow me on Twitter – and I doubt you do, but maybe, you’ve noticed I’ve tweeted a lot – and had grammar mistakes and spelling typos, so that must tell you I’m pissed. Here’s the story…
A lot of you know that Scott and I were looking to refinance the house. Done simply in an effort to drop our monthly payments – no equity loans or anything like that.
First came the cluster with the appraiser. First he missed our appointment, said there was a hold on the account. I called the bank, they said there was nothing wrong with the account. Four days later the appraiser tells the bank, “I thought Mrs. Thompson put the hold on it.” Yeah, right, that’s why I was livid when you didn’t show up when you were supposed to and spent every break I had from work for three days trying to clear it up.
So, then he finally shows up on Thursday (when he was supposed to come on Monday), and I’m dealing with a sick two-year-old, which is stress in and of itself. And then I have to deal with this strange guy, who I already don’t like, wandering around my house taking pictures, measuring, and judging. I try to be friendly with him, but the fact of the matter is, I don’t like this guy and I don’t like him in my house.
Then the appraisal comes in … $15,000 LESS than what we paid for the house a mere four years ago. I mean, I know the market sucks and all, but really? I’m paying taxes on the full purchase price of the house every year, so someone ain’t doing something right.
We start trying to fight the appraisal, nit-picking every thing we can. He got the age of the house wrong. (Apparently May 2006 translates into five years ago in his delusional world.) He marked that we had a microwave and a refrigerator but somehow missed the fact we had an oven/range, garbage disposal, washer and dryer. Don’t know how you miss any of those things (you might say disposal, but no, he can’t miss it because in my OCD, all of my lightswitches are labeled and there is one that is clearly marked “disposal”). Oh, yeah, and our house is BIGGER than another house that he claimed was worth more than ours. WTF?
Oh … and my favorite part, he’s dinging us on “neglected repairs” or something like that. I can’t remember the exact term, but I remember it offended me. What were the things he dinged me on? A slight rip in the carpet in our bedroom … which we are well aware of, but never fixed because we were planning on ripping up the carpet (before, of course, I lost my job, so that project got put on the back-burner). And don’t forget my favorite – unpainted areas on the walls. Random spots that had holes thanks to baby gate mounting brackets that I spackled. I just didn’t paint them. Apparently he said that’s a $460 decrease in home value. Suck it, appraiser man.
We write all this up and send it back to the bank. But she’s like, “This is all fine and dandy, but I have to have comps.” So we contact a realtor and ask for comps – she promised, but still have yet to see anything. Our friends get ahold of their realtor and she pulls us some comps, but none of them really help our case – except maybe pointing out that what this derelict appraised my house at is what the one that is 150-sqaure-feet smaller and missing a fence and a deck sold for a year ago.
Well, everything has been submitted to Chase. The mortgage lady comes back (and none of this is really her fault, she’s been great) and asks if we’ve fixed the repairs mentioned in the appraisal, whereupon I send back a diatribe asking why it mattered. I mean, in the end, every bit of it is aesthetic, and I don’t see how I should be dinged for that. Below, the e-mail:
“Forgive me for being naive, but please explain why "unpainted" areas should have any adverse effect on the appraisal (and subsequent approval of the loan/appraisal)? I mean, the holes were patched with spackle (they were all holes that came with mounting baby gates - as she got more mobile, we moved gates around). It's not like we weren't keeping up with the repairs, we just didn't paint. Why didn't we paint? 1) She's two. I don't want paint fumes in the house while she's running around - and God knows what a mess she makes with chalk, can you imagine if she managed to run her hands down a wall with wet paint? 2) The paint on the walls is the paint the house came with, which means it's builder-grade paint. If I go buy paint to patch over it, then it won't match and then the appraiser would probably ding me for non-matching areas in the paint surface. We (and by we, I mean I) want to paint the entire first floor of the house - but because we have a vaulted ceiling, it will involve scaffolding and hiring people, which is not cheap (as you know I was unemployed for a year and a half) and not easy to handle with a two year old running around the house.
Had we left the holes in the walls, completely without spackle or anything, I can understand why it could be an issue. But they were patched. Just not painted. Paint is aesthetic. I don't get why we're penalized because of it. Had the walls been white, you'd never know the patches weren't painted. Had we bought a Ball Home, none of the walls would have been painted - they would be plain white - would we be dinged because we didn't paint the walls? So we get penalized because we used a higher-quality builder who actually paints the walls before we move in. Good to know.
And, as Scott said, we have every intention of replacing the carpet in our bedroom. We just haven't had the opportunity yet. We want to put in hardwood and that will be the first room that gets it. Situations being what they are, we haven't had the free cash to take care of it. The carpet is completely functional as it is - it's not like we step on the tack strip because of that one little spot. I think, more than anything, that also boils down to aesthetics as well.
Sorry to seem a little jaded, but I am. I don't understand why these things should make a difference. It's not like we have broken windows that were replaced by plastic sheeting and duct tape. It's not like we have panels of our fence falling down. It's not like the banister on the stairs is wobbling. It's not like a stair is broken. It's not even like a door doesn't lock. I mean, all of those things I can see as a "must fix" before the refinance can happen. But why should these little aesthetic issues cause so much concern?
Do you think the people who handle the underwriting keeps up with every little repair on their home the instant it happens? I mean, if they have a hole in their wall, do you think they go to Lowe's, buy a can of spackle and a gallon of paint every single time? I seriously doubt it. Why hold us to crazy-high standards that most people don't even hold themselves to? If there were something extremely wrong with my home, believe me, for the safety of myself and my family, it would be taken care of.”
Had we left the holes in the walls, completely without spackle or anything, I can understand why it could be an issue. But they were patched. Just not painted. Paint is aesthetic. I don't get why we're penalized because of it. Had the walls been white, you'd never know the patches weren't painted. Had we bought a Ball Home, none of the walls would have been painted - they would be plain white - would we be dinged because we didn't paint the walls? So we get penalized because we used a higher-quality builder who actually paints the walls before we move in. Good to know.
And, as Scott said, we have every intention of replacing the carpet in our bedroom. We just haven't had the opportunity yet. We want to put in hardwood and that will be the first room that gets it. Situations being what they are, we haven't had the free cash to take care of it. The carpet is completely functional as it is - it's not like we step on the tack strip because of that one little spot. I think, more than anything, that also boils down to aesthetics as well.
Sorry to seem a little jaded, but I am. I don't understand why these things should make a difference. It's not like we have broken windows that were replaced by plastic sheeting and duct tape. It's not like we have panels of our fence falling down. It's not like the banister on the stairs is wobbling. It's not like a stair is broken. It's not even like a door doesn't lock. I mean, all of those things I can see as a "must fix" before the refinance can happen. But why should these little aesthetic issues cause so much concern?
Do you think the people who handle the underwriting keeps up with every little repair on their home the instant it happens? I mean, if they have a hole in their wall, do you think they go to Lowe's, buy a can of spackle and a gallon of paint every single time? I seriously doubt it. Why hold us to crazy-high standards that most people don't even hold themselves to? If there were something extremely wrong with my home, believe me, for the safety of myself and my family, it would be taken care of.”
*headdesk*
As for a response to my diatribe: nothing from the mortgage lady (and to be honest, if she tells me to jump off a cliff, I wouldn’t blame her) and Scott yelling at me telling me it was inappropriate. He had the same questions, but notice he didn’t voice it. Well, good for you Scott, you can keep calm. Wow, what a shock, that’s always been your strength over mine.
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