Minneapolis/St. Paul Nesties
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Home appraisal
We're refinancing our mortgage and someone's coming tomorrow to do an appraisal. What do they do or what are they looking for? Room measurements? Finished rooms? Something else?
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Re: Home appraisal
I didn't even think about notes on what we've done to the house. Did you include when you did them and the cost? I wonder if patios and landscaping help.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
They won't take measurements in most cases, because your home has a record on the MLS so they've got all the size and dimensions they're just looking for things like updates, remodels and things that could increase the value of the property. Sadly though patios, decks, and landscaping won't dramatically change the value of your home, like most people think. Its kind of one of those things that people think add a lot of value but don't really. It'd be like saying that an inground pool adds $10,000 to the value of the home, but you only get to use it for 3 months of the year. Appraisers have to take into account external factors that drive prices as well and with winter being 9 months of the year landscaping won't help if its covered by snow.
Another common one is garages, people think putting in large garages adds value but its kind of one of those things that don't appeal to most people, some people might only go looking for houses with 3 car garages but not enough to drive up the cost of a house because its "what people want".
Janell, would you list all the improvements with cost and dates and then have receipts? What of this is worth telling him about: we've replaced all our windows, storm doors, patio door, finished two rooms in the basement and refinished the wood floors. We've done a lot of small things like replaced light fixtures and sink and tub fixtures. Do those things matter?
Would a new heater and AC increase the value much?
We need to get every dollar out of this appraisal - we're soooo close to the max. loan to value ratio.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
I wouldn't bother putting anything on list under...say $1,000. So no light fixtures or things like that. I also wouldn't bother with receipts. It might cost you $10,000 to put on a new roof, but that won't actually add $10,000 in value to your house. But, a buyer might think "Gee, I won't have to get the roof replaced for 30 years" and that's an added value that way. The appraiser will know what's that worth. That's his/her job. Adding AC can be beneficial if it's a wall unit or central air if you didn't have it before. Window units won't add value.
It can't hurt to add anything onto the list It's just a reference to help the appraiser.
JennyK, I wouldn't put anything specific about how much you spent on those items, just put what you did and the year you did it.
I agree with PP about not putting light fixtures and such, they'll probably notice, but it isn't a thing that adds tremendous value, just makes the home more saleable.
You could put whether you purchased anything especially energy efficient, because there's a new movement in real estate towards green properties, and people are looking for more energy efficient homes (ie. energy efficient furnace, water heater, solar panels, etc).
Great, thanks for the helpful info!
We need to replace our furnace and AC sooner rather than later. Do you think it would be worth doing it ASAP and delaying the appraisal?
Sorry for what I'm sure are stupid and anal questions. We're just worried the appraisal is going to be less than our mortgage.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Depending on the age, I might consider it, but if its on the cusp and they are still energy efficient you can wait.
What does your property tax statement say its worth? They'll look at that, they'll look at your home, and they'll look at comparable properties with in a certain radius of your home. It used to be like 5-6 blocks around you, but I've seen them go a bit further out because its hard with a lot of bank owned properties, or short sales.
We had the appraisal and DH said it went well. He was interested in the small things we've done and DH said he was very impressed with all the work we've done around here. Now let's hope it helps!
Dutchgirl, I'm pretty sure ours is backed by Fannie Mae so we'll check into that if we're underwater. Thanks!
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Just wanted to give one more update....
Our appraisal came back at $21,000 more than we owe!!!! Yay for all those hours we spent updating things. And especially yay for not being underwater!
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.