Question by : low ball appraisal on refinance in stable real estate market?
We are located in Greenville, SC. Prices here are stable. We bought our home about 9 months ago. It is designed by Don Gardner, has 3 bed, 2 bath…2400 square feet with a half finished full walkout basement. The house was new when purchased and was on the market for 10 months and builder was eager to get rid of it. We purchased it for 250K and the list price was 280k. Builder and agent claim we basically paid for the costs on the house…may not be entirely true but it is probably close. Anyways, when house was appraised for purchase the appraiser used the house next door for one of the comps…similar house but finished basement sold for 290+. So we tried to refinance with our mortgage company and the appraisal came back at 200K. Same exact appraiser. The comps she used were of homes a few streets from us. They were the same size but 8-10 years old and without basements. Without a doubt not very comparable to the new home we purchased 9 months ago. Seems kind of screwy to us and it looks like we are out 500 bucks. We tried to send in other comps to argue the appraisal and they were rejected. We feel like they are doing this to keep us at the higher rate? Any thoughts? What is funny is that she has the same statement in both of our appraisals “home prices in this area stable” and yet now she says our home is worth 25 percent less. BTW there are no foreclosures in our area. The builder just sold like 5 new houses in the neighborhood and is building some basement houses so we are thinking of trying a local mortgage lender….smart move?

Best answer:

Answer by Asda
let someone else handle it

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