Refinance question regarding new appraisal

[frannn]

I finally applied for a refinance with the co that already holds our mortgage-Citibank (NY). We are lowering our rate from 6.125 to 4.25 for 15 years. The rep told me we have to go through a new closing, including a new appraisal, where they take pics inside and out. I'm nervous about this part, since we haven't really fixed/replaced anything major in the ten years we've lived here. We had the living room painted a few years ago, but to be honest, cosmetically its somewhat of a mess. Our attic had a drop ceiling that collapsed, which we never replaced. My daughter's radiator leaked, leaving a pinhole in the ceiling of the bedroom below, so it needs to be patched. The house is over 65 years old there are cracks in some of the wall plaster that I guess we would just paint over. The deck is structurally sound, but needs a really good cleaning/painting. Nothing major, but DH is not on top of it, and I'm constantly running to keep on top of daily stuff. Once we get our tax refund, I'm tempted to hire a handyman, but DH may be upset about it. We also have major major stuff cluttering every room...I admit I'm not a great housekeeper. Not "Hoarders" bad, but definetly not good. No flames, I've been working on it. I'm just concerned that the MESS will hinder our refinance. I'd guesstimate the house is worth at least 100K more than what we bought it for. I have too much going on right now to make the house my #1 priority, but don't want to pass on the new rate. Anybody been in my shoes and think if we should stop the refi, or don't sweat it?

 

[here757]

this is common pratice for the leinholder.. they have to justify lending you x amount of dollars.

trust me they dont care about the laundry that u have sorted on the laundry room floor.

they are gonna look for special features of the house. fire places. inground pools. sunroom

they will not let u refi with inspection
alot of insurance companies will order them done ..(this is where i dealt with it)

I finally applied for a refinance with the co that already holds our mortgage-Citibank (NY). We are lowering our rate from 6.125 to 4.25 for 15 years. The rep told me we have to go through a new closing, including a new appraisal, where they take pics inside and out. I'm nervous about this part, since we haven't really fixed/replaced anything major in the ten years we've lived here. We had the living room painted a few years ago, but to be honest, cosmetically its somewhat of a mess. Our attic had a drop ceiling that collapsed, which we never replaced. My daughter's radiator leaked, leaving a pinhole in the ceiling of the bedroom below, so it needs to be patched. The house is over 65 years old there are cracks in some of the wall plaster that I guess we would just paint over. The deck is structurally sound, but needs a really good cleaning/painting. Nothing major, but DH is not on top of it, and I'm constantly running to keep on top of daily stuff. Once we get our tax refund, I'm tempted to hire a handyman, but DH may be upset about it. We also have major major stuff cluttering every room...I admit I'm not a great housekeeper. No flames, I've been working on it. I'm just concerned that the MESS will hinder our refinance. I'd guesstimate the house is worth at least 100K more than what we bought it for. I have too much going on right now to make the house my #1 priority, but don't want to pass on the new rate. Anybody been in my shoes and know if we should stop the refi?

 

[mster425]

Don't stop the refi!!

They don't care about your mess or the deck. I would maybe patch the hole in the ceiling.

He is going to count beds and baths, measure square footage, check for the presence of a deck, that kind of thing- it's not like prepping your house for resale

Based on: We just had our house appraised for a refi and we are pigs. And our upstairs is half painted.

 

[here757]

Don't stop the refi!!

They don't care about your mess or the deck. I would maybe patch the hole in the ceiling.

He is going to count beds and baths, measure square footage, check for the presence of a deck, that kind of thing- it's not like prepping your house for resale

Based on: We just had our house appraised for a refi and we are pigs. And our upstairs is half painted.

i cant tell u how many i looked through and thought woah.. LOL
but i have seen some really neat stuff too.. i had one the guy had an outdoor lift. took him down a steep hill.. looked like a chair lift

 

[frannn]

this is common pratice for the leinholder.. they have to justify lending you x amount of dollars.

trust me they dont care about the laundry that u have sorted on the laundry room floor.

they are gonna look for special features of the house. fire places. inground pools. sunroom

they will not let u refi with inspection
alot of insurance companies will order them done ..(this is where i dealt with it)

I have three daughters who are mess makers, a puppy, an old, sadistic (spiteful) cat, and a DH who I love dearly, but between his paying job and volunteer firefighter gig, doesn't get much done around here. We are somewhere between the Bundy's and ...definetly not hoarders, but maybe if they had a "rat packers" series. Lots of laundry and "stuff". Not proud of it, but I definetly make my kids' needs and FT job a bigger priority than keeping up with the house. Still ok?

 

[here757]

I have three daughters who are mess makers, a puppy, an old, sadistic (spiteful) cat, and a DH who I love dearly, but between his paying job and volunteer firefighter gig, doesn't get much done around here. We are somewhere between the Bundy's and ...definetly not hoarders, but maybe if they had a "rat packers" series. Lots of laundry and "stuff". Not proud of it, but I definetly make my kids' needs and FT job a bigger priority than keeping up with the house. Still ok?

of course it will be ok..
there are no laws about an untidy house.

my mom used to be that way,, if someone was comming to visit. we would clean for days LOL

 

[sbakersub]

I refinanced a year or so back to a 5% rate. Before the appraisal, I cleaned for 3 days and nights so my house ultimately looked like a show home...it was beautiful! The appraiser spent about 20 minutes all together, inside and out, and although he commented on how nice the place looked, there's no place on the appraisal form to rate the cleanliness of a house I did get an extraordinarily clean house out of all my work, but it didn't change the value overall.

As previous posters have said, the appraiser will be checking for overall property condition, square footage, special amenities and improvements, adverse conditions (so yeah, maybe patch the holes), comparable sales in the area, etc. As long as he/she can get between rooms, it should be fine.

 

[emmababy]

They won't care abouy tidyness but the cracks in the plaster, damage to ceiling- those things could cause a problem. But, if you believe you have 100k in equity, then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[beachbunny]

When I refi'd the appraiser was more concerned with structural stuff than cleanliness. I'd try to take care of the collapsed ceiling, the hole in the other ceiling, and cracks in the wall plaster - all of which could be indicators of serious structural issues.

 

[Kay1]

When I refi'd the appraiser was more concerned with structural stuff than cleanliness. I'd try to take care of the collapsed ceiling, the hole in the other ceiling, and cracks in the wall plaster - all of which could be indicators of serious structural issues.

I agree. Best of luck to you, Frann.

 

[asoko]

Any health and safety issue will have to be fixed, things that affect the livability of the home. If cost to cure repairs are over 2% of the house value, that might have to be repaired. No underwriter is going to tell you to paint a room.

One thing that bothers me when I look at an appraisal. The toilet lid being open. For some reason when appraisers take a picture of the bathroom the toilet is front and center and wide open.

 

[dawson5]

we refi'ed last spring. I did the whole she-bang of cleaning and this and that. Kept waiting for the appraiser. Finally we get a call from the bank that everything was done! (?) We never saw the appraiser, they did a drive by. The appraisal came in for what we needed, we were upset that they didn't see what was done inside which would have made (we think) the house appraise for more. It didn't matter though, with just the basics that they could see from the outside it was enough. Don't sweat it.

 

[disneyfans95]

Well for the OP description, this does not sound good

If you have damage like collapsed ceiling and the rest, they won''t be doing the refi. While the bank will overlook many things that are housekeeping type things, they won't look past the things the OP stated.

Not throwing stones at the OP, but her description is pretty bleak on the condition of the house..

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We're in the middle of a re-fi right now and, thankfully, the appraisal was waived. We're keeping the same lender and the amount we need to borrow is very small in relation to the price of houses in our neighborhood. They just ran comps to get an idea of the value of the house and we went from there. If an appraiser was coming, I would probably do a major cleaning beforehand, but that's just my own craziness!