I’m in the process of doing another of my cash-out refis. I just bought it last Friday, and I’m trying to set a new record and do a cash-out refi based on the appraised value in less than 30 days. I just did two yesterday – one was 42 days and the other was 55 days.
My mortgage guy is top notch (Dave Geraghty at Centerone Mortgage), and he’s been keeping me abreast of the changes in the mortgage market. He’s been telling me to expect big changes, and we started to see them in one of these quick refis that I just completed. Due to the lack of sales, one of the properties had to have a field review by the lender’s in house review appraiser. The review appraiser (of course) knocked the value down, but not so much that I couldn’t still get just about all of my money out.
So I had Dave call the same lender and ask them about this new property. I wanted to strike while the iron was hot with these people, because this new property is exactly the same size and configuration and one block over and two blocks down from the property that had the appraisal knocked down.
Their reply demonstrated even more tightening of the guidelines:
All comps have to be in the last 90 days, the comps have to be identical to the subject, some square footage, bed room count, bathroom, foundation, exterior, everything the same.
There can be little to no adjustments on the appraisal. If your appraiser can do this then you may be able to avoid a review appraisal. The underwriter is always going to reserve the right to ask for one though, so you ought to expect it.
Wonderful. $400 for an appraisal and another $300 for a review appraisal. Again.
But do you know what? The math STILL works. And that’s the name of the game.
And the game is all about acquiring productive assets.
