Still On About the House

Ha! Little did I know how much could still go awry...

So, just after we'd finished negotiating with the sellers on price, we found out that although the appraisal had come in at value (at the price we were paying), the lending institution questioned it. They did a "desk" review of the appraisal, meaning that they did not visit the property. Nor, apparently did they consult with anyone who actually knows Richmond and knows which streets are the borders of very different neighborhoods, etc. They found new "comparables" for our house (in the ghetto part of town) and decided that our house was worth $90,000 less than the initial appraisal. To make matters worse, they didn't do this desk review until about a week after the appraisal, so we all thought it was fine.

Our people (it's nice to feel like you've got people on your side in these things) submitted a rebuttal, showing why their "comps" were not, in fact, comparable, as well as bringing up superior aspects of the house that were not acknowledged (corner lot, 2 bathrooms, wood siding not stucco, etc.). The rebuttal was rejected. Meanwhile, during all of this, the sellers are breathing down our necks. Well, the sellers' agent is the one we were hearing from, and she has a particularly strident, panicky, aggressive/defensive, slightly un-educated email style, as well as clearly not being so good with careful reading. Seeing her emails makes our blood boil.

Our mortgage broker's company thought the desk appraisal was so egregious that they paid for an independent appraisal and, needless to say, went looking for a different lender.

We just found out yesterday morning (or was it Tuesday?) that the independent appraisal came in at value and that our broker did find another lender with the same rate as the first lender. So everything was looking really good on the lending front until yesterday afternoon, when our mortgage broker called to say that they needed some more paperwork from us that they thought they had. Unfortunately, it was not something that can be ordered online, but will take a day or two to arrive.

Still meanwhile, the sellers' agent threatened to cancel our contract and hung up on our real estate agent's broker. Fortunately, she had the good sense to call back and listen while the broker explained that she didn't have a legal leg to stand on to cancel our contract. Hopefully, she is properly abashed and will just be quiet for the next several days.

It looks like we might close next Friday, February 27th, but I have learned to take nothing in this process for granted!