New home appraisal problems

[ToastGuard]

I am not sure if something like this has been posted before, but I wanted anyone's opinion/knowledge I can get.

I have spent the past couple months going through the process of finding a builder and location to build a new accessible home because there are no accessible homes available where I live. After fighting tooth and nail with the builder to get fair pricing for the changes required to their stock floor plan and coming to an agreement, an appraisal was done and came in at roughly 45k less than the sale price. This presents a problem because we cannot get a loan for anything more than the appraisal price. It has come to our attention that all the money we would be putting towards making the house accessible does not count towards the value of the house, so we can not get the appraisal to anywhere close to where the purchase price is. Has anyone dealt with this in the past? Does anyone have any solution for this? It seems as though if this appraisal stands, we will NEVER be able to build a house because we will never get an appraisal for the same value as what the builder will charge us.

If anyone has experience with this, please help! I am about at my wits end dealing with this building process.

Thanks!

[gpbullock]

Find someone who will build for less. The housing market is very slow right now and just as slow for builders. This is an example of de-inflation in the construction market. The contractor will need to reduce his margins or not get to build the house. Houses aren't appraising at the same value as banks don't want to loan on homes. Maybe look into a remodel of an existing house that you can buy for less than market value.

[MSWIFE1]

Not exactly the same problem but I remodeled our home to make it more accessible for my husband, then had to refinance, I asked for a complete appraisal, inside and out not just them coming out taking pictures of the outside because I wanted to know what the improvements I had made on the inside were worth. Appraiser came, looked, uh huh yep ok, well none of that makes a difference, didn't add any value what so ever! How stupid, I would think that would make if more valueable since they are hard to find. How wrong I was.
Good luck!

[Kari in Pacific NW]

I have a central cord injury that affects my arms much more than my legs. We remodeled a bathroom to make it more accessible for me, especially the shower, which is now 5' by 5' with two fixed shower heads, one handheld shower head, and four jets. There are two recessed areas in the tile walls, that would look like windows if they weren't tiled. The granite "windowsills" acts as shelves for me to support my arms when I shower by myself. The jets were set so that I could rinse under my arms and breast and in my genital area. It works wonderfully, but my point in answering your post is to say it looks like a luxurious shower and not one done to accommodate a disabled person. We recently refinanced our house and the now high-end bathroom did help bring up the appraisal.

[MSWIFE1]

That describes one of my bathrooms to a T, didn't help us.

[MSspouse]

...It seems as though if this appraisal stands, we will NEVER be able to build a house because we will never get an appraisal for the same value as what the builder will charge us...

That would probably be true for any home today - accessible or not. Virtually every home in the country is probably priced tens of thousands under replacement cost. Only those who want something very specific and who are OK with the fact it will be worth less than they paid should consider building. And major remodeling has always been a losing proposition if you are paying for labor.

Perhaps if you included some details we might be able to give you a better idea. Land prices vary, but material is pretty consistent in price throughout the country. The shortage of work isn't going to bring new prices down. I don't think I could build my current home for it's current market value if all the labor were free.

[ToastGuard]

I live in Maryland, which puts me in the DC housing market. Everything is much more expensive than it should be. We are trying to build a single story home (with basement) on .4 acres. The problem arises because there are no other single story homes in the neighborhood we would like to build in. When the appraiser came through, he compared our prospective home with a bunch of two story home of similar square footage. This is not a fair assessment as single story homes are always more expensive than two story homes of similar square footage because of larger foundations and roofs. We considered going with a two story home and adding an elevator, but found that this would not solve our assessment problem as the accessibility features did not add value to the assessment. The result would be putting more money on a two story house that would not be recouped in the assessment.

We have looked at our options of builders in our area and the one we went with is the cheapest. We have also looked into established homes to renovate, but there is not a single home where we live that would be liveable without a large amount of changes. We are kind of out of options to get out of renting forever if we cannot build a home.

I really appreciate the replies and hopefully this explanation sheds a little more light on my situation. Please let me know if there are any further questions and I look forward to reading any responses.

[Kari in Pacific NW]

Well, if you are going to have a basement, couldn't you build a two-story house with the basement rooms upstairs instead? That would lower the building costs. Of course, they wouldn't be accessible to you, but it appears the basement wouldn't be accessible anyway. Maybe I'm missing something.

[brucec]

must be different down in north carolina, my appraiser asked what I was looking for and I told him the price and thats what it came out to

[titanium4motion]

Update your prints.

I am not sure if something like this has been posted before, but I wanted anyone's opinion/knowledge I can get.

I have spent the past couple months going through the process of finding a builder and location to build a new accessible home because there are no accessible homes available where I live. After fighting tooth and nail with the builder to get fair pricing for the changes required to their stock floor plan and coming to an agreement, an appraisal was done and came in at roughly 45k less than the sale price. This presents a problem because we cannot get a loan for anything more than the appraisal price. It has come to our attention that all the money we would be putting towards making the house accessible does not count towards the value of the house, so we can not get the appraisal to anywhere close to where the purchase price is. Has anyone dealt with this in the past? Does anyone have any solution for this? It seems as though if this appraisal stands, we will NEVER be able to build a house because we will never get an appraisal for the same value as what the builder will charge us.

If anyone has experience with this, please help! I am about at my wits end dealing with this building process.

Thanks!

Ah? Your blueprints are to general. You need more detail on your blueprints. For instance in the kitchen you need to have sink manufacturer and model number same as sink faucet manufacturer and model number. Same for kitchen cabinets, manufacturer, type of material and all the unit numbers plus what kind of door pulls? Manufacturer and model numbers. My door pulls came to $625 for all the cabinet doors.

The same with counter top material. What are you going with? Laminate, solid surface, granite? Is it indicate on the prints? Each has different pricing. The bank will chose the lowest value.

Flooring? Blueprints must state carpet, tile, granite, marble, etc. Each room must have type of flooring, manufacture and model/color/series, etc. to increase the appraised value.

You need all this detail so when the bank evaluates these prints they will give a higher appraised value.

The same with bathroom fixtures, toilet manufacture and model number, sink, and all the plumbing fixtures must be spelled out; Kohler Stillness, model number ... The wall material like Glasroc not green board drywall, and what type of material will cover the walls? Tile, stone, fiberglass enclosure? Manufacturer and model numbers. If you are going to tile the ceiling(s) your blueprints better indicate it; manufacture of tile, size, etc.

Type of garage door, size and manufacturer and opener.

Are you using cement or paver bricks? If paver bricks you better have the manufacturer and model on the prints. Paver bricks can be priced from 49 cents to $3 one paver plus the stone below it.

Be very specific with interior and exterior doors and door hardware. You can have a $17 Stanley door lever or a $110 Inox door lever made of stainless steel. The same with windows; single pane, double pane or triple pane with uv protection, size, color and manufacture.

Your blueprints should be packed with as much details as possible. You should be able to look at a door, cabinet, window and be able to know color, manufacturer and size. Go back to your general contractor and have him update the prints for you. This will increase the appraised value otherwise the appraised value will be lower.

Ti

[Sue Pendleton]

Toast, if you are back to work and where I think you are have you talked to the EEO type yet? There must be something/someone in the NOD that can help you. NOD=National Organization on Disability.

NC has a ton of vets Bruce and my guess is someone wants to help them out. I wouldn't advertise it.

[Sue Pendleton]

Thanks Ti. We're finishing up a huge bathroom project in a newer condo and I plan on getting all the details now. I know everything we chose but no idea what they call or who makes the rubber membrane under the shower tile area and some of those details. And yes, drawer pulls can go from a dollar to handmade and out of sight.

[ToastGuard]

Thanks for all the input!

Kari, the basement of this house was supposed to be a walk-out, which would have been accessible and why we went with it, but the builder came back at the last minute and said they could not do a walk out. The basement now would just be for storage. We stuck with the one story so all the bedrooms would be on one floor in case of emergencies.

brucec, the appraisal in Maryland is based on what they call "comparable homes." They look for homes similar to yours in your neighborhood and average their sale price and call that the value of your home. The problem is there are no homes even slightly similar to the house we were trying to build.

ti, the appraisal simply did not go into that level of detail. It went to the level or granite or laminate, carpet or hardwood, but levels within that were not considered. This appraiser over looked a lot of features, such as the extended garage (to accommodate a van), which is why we appealed. Unfortunately we do not hold the blueprints, the builder does, so we cannot control the level of detail shown to the appraiser.

Thank again everyone for the help!

[ToastGuard]

To give an update. After we appealed the appraisal, the number came back to still $9000 less than the sale price, requiring us to pay the difference at closing directly to the builder. Next step will be seeing if the builder will lower their price to match the assessment. We'll see what happens....

[titanium4motion]

Schulter Systems

Thanks Ti. We're finishing up a huge bathroom project in a newer condo and I plan on getting all the details now. I know everything we chose but no idea what they call or who makes the rubber membrane under the shower tile area and some of those details. And yes, drawer pulls can go from a dollar to handmade and out of sight.

Schulter systems. Get a Schulter KERDI-drain install. Very beautiful and elagant.

http://www.schluter.com/


Ti