Townhouse – I still don’t know yet!

I actually had a loyal fan email me today, wanting to know how the townhouse was faring. Seriously? You are not yet sick of hearing me write about my attempts to purchase houses?

For the past week we’ve been waiting because our lender was going to review and reconsider the low-ball appraisal. And we had decided not to ask the sellers for a reduction until we knew the results of the lender’s review. Every day they told us they would have the review done by the end of the day.

Finally, after a week of waiting, the lender got back to us yesterday and said, nope, they are not going to increase the value of the appraisal. Meanwhile, I’ve been running spreadsheets like a crazy woman and I think I pretty much know as well as anyone what that house is worth. I think it’s worth about exactly half-way between the appraised amount and my original offer. In addition, the most recent, and most similar comparison sale (which the appraiser somehow overlooked) sold for just a few thousand less than the half-way point. So I feel pretty confident about what that house is worth on the current market.

This morning we wrote an amendment to the offer, offering the half-way point, which is what I think the house is worth. I expect them to counter-offer. In which case, we’ll need to decide whether to pay over the probable market price or not.

Meanwhile, I am also looking into getting a new lender, in hopes to get a more realistic appraisal. The higher the appraisal we get, the more we can borrow on a low-interest, 30-year mortgage, and the less we have to come up with cash (or borrow at a high-interest, faster payoff). The question is, is it worth going through the hassle of getting a new lender? The paperwork is ridiculous nowadays. And it will slow us down.

The first lender I contacted advertised good interest rates, but they told me it would take 60 days, because they didn’t have those particular HOA documents on file, and they have some sort of onerous review process for the HOA docs. That’s bogus. My sellers aren’t going to wait for another two months!

So my agent recommended a different lender and I spoke to them yesterday. They’ll need 30 days minimum, and we’re currently 2 weeks from our initial closing date. So it will set us back 2-3 weeks past the initial closing date. And the sellers would need to agree to that.

My agent presented the new, reduced offer to the sellers this morning. I’ll let you know when I hear something!