Bad timing

[Horace]

Now the salesperson for the builder has to convince the appraiser to write a new report which supports the value we are buying at. If she can’t convince the appraiser that he sucks at his job and she is way better, then the builder will probably come down in price. That would be nice. Or maybe they will force a choice on me to pay the difference or cancel the contract, while they keep our earnest money. They could do that but probably will not, as a company that cares about its reputation.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace It seems to me that the appraisal system is pretty farcical. The house is worth what people are willing to pay for it, so the most you can really do is look at similar ones in the vicinity, and check for any massive repairs that are needed. How can somebody operating in this way be accurate enough to say it's worth 1% less than you're offering, particularly when the market is currently so unpredictable?

[Horace]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:

@Horace It seems to me that the appraisal system is pretty farcical. The house is worth what people are willing to pay for it, so the most you can really do is look at similar ones in the vicinity, and check for any massive repairs that are needed. How can somebody operating in this way be accurate enough to say it's worth 1% less than you're offering, particularly when the market is currently so unpredictable?

I don't know, but I trust him and I hope the builder is forced to come down in price. That 1% is worth 40 bucks a month to me for the next 30 years. I would earmark that $40 each month for something nice and fanciful in honor of the integrity of the appraisal profession.

The appraiser gives his qualifications on the last page of the appraisal report. He has a bachelors degree from the university of Puerto Rico, in anthropology, with a minor in geography. YMMV but I'm not about to question a person of that professional stature.

But what I expect to happen, is that his original conclusion, having not been to the taste of the financially interested party who hired him, will be revisited at their request. He will produce a new, updated, and more accurate report which supports the conclusions desired by the people who paid him. It's like climate science.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:

The house is worth what people are willing to pay for it

Actually, the house is worth what you are willing to pay for it as a downpayment and how much the bank is willing to lend. If the second number is low, you're SOL.

I would assume that a contract for sale would include a clause for such eventualities.

[Horace]

@George-K said in Bad timing:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:

The house is worth what people are willing to pay for it

Actually, the house is worth what you are willing to pay for it as a downpayment and how much the bank is willing to lend. If the second number is low, you're SOL.

I would assume that a contract for sale would include a clause for such eventualities.

Normal home sale contracts do; new build home sale contracts do not. There basically are no contingencies. But it's reasonable to assume a large builder will operate honorably, with their reputations being on the line.

[George K]

@Horace said in Bad timing:

it's reasonable to assume a large builder will operate honorably

How old are you, again?

[Horace]

@George-K said in Bad timing:

@Horace said in Bad timing:

it's reasonable to assume a large builder will operate honorably

How old are you, again?

I mean when they're operating under the daylight of observation by other parties, such as buyers and their agents. These builders have a lot of competition from one another, and they care more about their reputation than they do about a few thousand dollars in a given transaction. This is my hope at least.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in Bad timing:

How old are you, again?

Apparently, he's young enough to get a thirty year mortgage.

I was also just given such a thing, and I'm 59. Based on their amortization schedule, they're expecting me to pay it off in 2052, which makes sense in one way (as it's a thirty year), but less so in another.

[Horace]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:

@George-K said in Bad timing:

How old are you, again?

Apparently, he's young enough to get a thirty year mortgage.

I was also just given such a thing, and I'm 59. Based on their amortization schedule, they're expecting me to pay it off in 2052.

Good thing I got the mortgage rather than paying cash. I wouldn't have gotten an appraisal, and would not have had today's fun and excitement imagining the salesperson who made my wife and me feel bad over our negotiation, frantically gathering evidence, on her day off, to attempt to prove to a fine Puerto Rican appraiser that Karen the Salesweasel is better at his job than he is.

[Jolly]

Appraisers can be nudged.

I nudged one about 20% downwards, years ago...

[Copper]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:

It seems to me that the appraisal system is pretty farcical

Yup

The thing is, it has different purposes for different people

It has to be used by the lender, the buyer, the seller, the agents, the appraiser and the tax man. They all care about different things.

[Horace]

The salesperson asked if we had plans to move in on Friday, which is the day after close. I thought that was a strange question. If we can’t close, it’s our problem what we will do, not hers. And she is not asking out of concern. My guess is that she wants to fashion a narrative for her boss as a justification for lowering the price, rather than risk missing the close as she engages with the appraiser. So I let her know we have huge plans for the day after the close, which will be complicated to cancel.

There is a real concern about being homeless next Monday, when our Airbnb time expires, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in Bad timing:

There is a real concern about being homeless next Monday, when our Airbnb time expires, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

We've got the opposite problem - I currently own two houses, we're supposed to close the sale on 10/6. The buyer seems overly concerned with a missing down-spout on one of the gutters and us repairing the lazy Susan. What he should be looking at is the $30K we just spent on the new septic system. I don't think he's ever owned a house before, and is approaching it like you do a landlord, worrying about all the little things. It's really quite aggravating. We've been knocking ourselves out fixing up the new place which was a real mess, and he's nit-picking our place, which is actually in pretty good shape.

The bank hasn't done the appraisal yet, so there's that, too....

[Horace]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:

@Horace said in Bad timing:

There is a real concern about being homeless next Monday, when our Airbnb time expires, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

The bank hasn't done the appraisal yet, so there's that, too....

What could go wrong?

[kluurs]

Exciting times.... can hardly wait for the exciting conclusions.

[89th]

@Horace said in Bad timing:

There is a real concern about being homeless next Monday, when our Airbnb time expires, but we will cross live under that bridge when we get to it.

FIFY

[89th]

@Doctor-Phibes yeah that’s annoying. But, hopefully minor and temporary. Hope the new place is rewarding to fix and make your own

@Horace When is the updated appraisal expected?

[George K]

Amazing how nit-picky buyers can be.

But when you start talking about an older property they get perfectly ridiculous.

[Horace]

@89th said in Bad timing:

@Doctor-Phibes yeah that’s annoying. But, hopefully minor and temporary. Hope the new place is rewarding to fix and make your own

@Horace When is the updated appraisal expected?

Tomorrow. Or never, in which case we have a Mexican standoff where I threaten them that they will have to keep my 25k earnest money if they don’t reduce their price.

[Doctor Phibes]

@89th said in Bad timing:

Hope the new place is rewarding to fix and make your own

I'm actually really enjoying it, although it's been a lot of work. The previous owners appear to have been absolute slobs, but the fundamentals are good.

On Sunday I removed this absolutely horrifically colored, and very dirty, bright pink carpet from one of the bedrooms, uncovering a pretty much pristine hardwood floor underneath. It appears to have been untouched since about 1980. So there are some nice surprises, along with the less nice ones. I have found and disposed of more discarded dental-floss applicators than I care to think about. After a while you stop pulling a face over the discovery.