Moving On
We emailed the bank on Tuesday with a long list of our concerns regarding the low appraisal. We also included the Residential Green and Energy Efficient Addendum from the Appraiser’s Institute website which we completed with all the information relevant to our house. It is supposed to help appraisers determine the value of energy efficient features, like the ICF we are using. We also listed 6 comparable properties we found that are more comparable to our house. The ones he used were all on less than an acre. 4 of the 6 we found were on more than an acre and sold more recently (and for more money). They were all within the same distance as the comps he used. We still haven’t heard back on whether they’ve revised the appraisal or not. I will probably check in with them on Monday. I don’t have high hopes though given how low the original appraisal was.
Meanwhile, we decided our only option was to keep trekking on to try to get this house built. David contacted another local bank yesterday who will allow less down than the previous bank (10% vs 15%). That could make a big difference, even if the appraisal comes back low again. Their construction loan program was fairly similar to the previous bank, but we would have 2 closings instead of 1. The second closing (once the house is finished) won’t be as big a deal, or as expensive, as the first closing. They said we could close in approximately 3 weeks once they get all our information. I started filling out the application yesterday and plan to drop it and all the required paperwork off Monday morning. David asked about their appraisals and he said they use a 3rd party and usually don’t have any problems with them. David mentioned the ICF and other things going in our house and they guy didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. Of course, there are no guarantees. Good news is, this appraisal should be cheaper than the first one.
So, I guess there’s a possibility we could get started around the first of July. I’m going to take things one week at a time until we get to that point though.
We are currently trying to build in NW Tn and our appraisal came in 100k too low. There isn’t a single comp that is similar that wasn’t sold as a fire sale due to the seller having to sell. I feel your pain if you come up with a solution please let us know. I’ve been following your blog and we are actually building a very similarly finished house as yours.
Hello! Ours wasn’t quite that bad, but close. I plan to keep the blog updated on what’s going on. We’ll see if the new bank works out any better. I”ll send you an email too. Good luck!
Thanks for the update. I look forward to see how things turn out for you. If you wouldn’t mind I’d be very interested to find out who the other lender you are going to go with. Its just really frustrating because it makes one feel like one can’t afford it. It isn’t fair that you have to be compared to a previous sale that isn’t comparable. I appreciate any ideas or help that you may have.