Has anyone refinanaced lately

I was curious if anyone's appraisal came back higher/lower than you expected. Also if you have a comparison (or difference) against Zillow.com and whatever appraisal you received that would be valuable information for us.

Reason I ask is because Zillow shows almost all homes in Broadlands have dropped 15-25K in the last 45 days or so. We're at the point where we are about to order an appraisal for a refinance and it might be a waste of $400 to move forward if homes have really dropped that much in value (since we would need to bring a lot more to closing and would likely decline to do the refinance if our homes value is what Zillow now says vs what it said 2 months ago). We're kind of on the edge of it being worth it to drop the rate vs. putting more cash into the mortgage.

Do people find that zillow is generally pretty close, or can it be way off in some cases within our neighborhood?

TIA

 

I was surprised to find that one of my new neighbors paid significantly MORE than what Zillow says the house was worth....I no longer am putting any faith into what they believe the house is worth due to the volatile swing in numbers they put on their website. How do we know its really THAT reliable to begin with???

 

It depends on when your neighbors bought....for instance what zillow says my house is worth is a huge freaking big difference than what I bought it for.....:0(

 

Coach Cal,

We just refinanced (2 weeks ago) and our appraisal came in about $20k less than I expected, but that was just my expectations. I just compared the appraisal with what is out on zillow and the appraisal is $11k higher than zillow. The appraisal for the refinancing wasn't an issue for us since we bought back in 1999. I hope things work out for you.

Genco

 

Yea I just went through the appraisal and Zillow was definitely lower than what we got back. There are more factors that the appraiser brings to the table and your situation may highly depend upon some softer factors... your street, landscaping, upgrades etc.

The bigger problem we are having is with rates... they have been up and down a lot this past week or so, up to 5.3% late last week. I think today it was around 5%. That is not as good as I hoped for so I am stuck waiting for a better rate to jump. I am right at the 80/20 split for LTV.

Good luck

 

Yea I just went through the appraisal and Zillow was definitely lower than what we got back. There are more factors that the appraiser brings to the table and your situation may highly depend upon some softer factors... your street, landscaping, upgrades etc.

The bigger problem we are having is with rates... they have been up and down a lot this past week or so, up to 5.3% late last week. I think today it was around 5%. That is not as good as I hoped for so I am stuck waiting for a better rate to jump. I am right at the 80/20 split for LTV.

Good luck

 

We just refinanced 4-5 weeks ago. Zillow was about $30k more than our appraisel came out to. I can't complain too much as the refinance was still a good thing, but to see the appraisel come in about $25k less than I expected was a little concerning.....

 

This was my concern. We bought in 2005 so we're underwater and bringing quite a bit to closing to make this happen (about 12-15% the value of the house) just to get LTV to 95%. Even with Mortgage Insurance, the refinanced lowered rate comes out improved over what we pay now without PMI since rates have dropped so much. However, my estimate when we started this process is now 25-30K above what zillow says we're at, so if our appraisal came back 30K below then that is A LOT more money that would need to be brought to closing.

I'm sure a lot of others here are in a similar situation. Oh well, we love the neighborhood and the house, and that is all that matters. Not worth worrying about what we can't control (home prices)... right? I just hope interest rates don't jump up to 10-15% when we're finally ready to move up in house :scaredeyes:

 

We had an appraisal done in May. We had another one done in late October, if memory serves. The second one came in about $30k higher than the first one did. And zillow for us is about $25k less than our last appraisal for some reason. But I don't really trust zillow that much. A few houses down is a house the same model as ours, the only significant difference being our finished basement, and the other house is approx. $50-$60k less on zillow. NO WAY is there that much difference between the two houses.

 

Totally agree. Your home is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. What is that price? Look at the comps for a good idea.

 

yeah, the comps aren't coming in that great either (the last 60 days). Though sometimes it is hard to determine which are actually short sales/foreclosures and which are valid sales (different sites tend to contradict there). I wonder if that really makes all that much difference to an appraiser? Seems in the last few months only about 2 of the 15-20 homes at near our sqft are selling at what I thought ours should be at. Likely not a good sign.

 

We ended up refinancing back in October. We purchased back in late 2004 and were able to drop over 1 point on the interest rate with barely any closing costs and no points paid. I ended up giving LendingTree.com a try and ended up being contacted by Quicken Loans. They were fantastic to work with, fast and easy and they even came to our house for closing. I highly recommend them.