S/O refi ??'s, Quick, easy ways to make house worth more?

[bobandjess99]

We're trying to refi, and need our house to appraise for as much as possible. We just got a brand new high-efficiency furance and A/C unit installed when our old one died this winter. That should help make the house worth more, right? (the one that was in it was 30+ years old!)
I was wondering if there are other things we could do to make the house worth more, without spending a lot of money to do it?
I've read that most home improvements actually aren't "worth" what you spend on them.

[MamaMelis]

A fresh coat of neutral paint always goes a long way towards anything even slightly dingy or strong colored.....

Some nice bushes or plants around the front door?

Fresh curtains?

Get your carpets professionally cleaned.

Good luck!!!

[Norasmomma]

Two things spruce up the kitchen and bathrooms. We refi'd a few years ago and we'd just done a cosmetic redo of the kitchen and it seriously added like 20 grand to our house, all we did was paint, buy a new stove and fridge, new formica on the countertop and new hardware on the cabinets. We spent like 2000.

My Dh is very handy and an electrician, so he knows how to do most stuff. I can't imagine what our house will be worth when our current projects get done. Our bathroom now has a heated, stamped concrete floor-those are worth a lot, plus new cabinets(bought off CL for $500-total steal).

Those 2 rooms are the biggest bang for the buck.

[SunshineJ]

I know a finished basement adds a lot of value to a house. Really at our old place, if we did the work outselves, to frame it, throw up sheet rock on the walls and ceiling and indoor/outdoor carpeting we were only looking at a couple thousand for something like and estimated 10k return on value. But for something fast and cheap to make it look "better" probably one good thing you can do is clean it up really well. A house that looks very well taken care of should normally appraise for a little more than a house that's a mess, as it's assumed things are in better working order and because of human bias.

[cschick]

My experience with refi appraisals is that they are almost always strongly comp-based. The thing that has the biggest effect on the value they come back with is the recent sales prices of other homes in your neighborhood . . .

This screwed us recently, as a home down the street which was trashed by renters and about to go into foreclosure sold for 100K under what anything else in our subdivision has ever sold under. (The home that sold just a couple weeks before it sold for 100K more than it did.) The refi appraisal of our house came back at just 20K over what the trashed house sold for--and we were told that the appraisal wouldn't improve until something else in our subdivision sold.

[Ola_]

In your area does the person doing the appraisal actually come into the home? We had one done when we bought the house (maybe that is different though?) and the person never went inside. It was based on local comps and possibly a drive-by?

[MamaMelis]

Doh! I'm sorry, OP, I misread your question and thought you were looking for ways to increase your price for SALE, like staging.

The PP's are right, the refi assessment will be heavily based on comps, skip the coat of paint!

[karne]

You should find out if the person doing the assessment is actually going to walk through your home. W/the recent financial crisis, mortgage co's have gotten somewhat stricter about this. Comp's are huge-you might want to find out whether foreclosures or short sales are listed in the comps, because this will obviously have an impact on your appraisal.

If you have done any work to your home, make an itemized list and give it to the appraiser. Condition certainly matters, but your biggest issue will be comps.

[Eman'smom]

For us the bank did an over the phone appraisal. They pulled up our address and told us what they thought it was worth, without asking any questions. They had the address, lot size and squarefootage. If we weren't happy with the number they would sent a person out to do a walkthough. While the appraisal was on the low side it was fine for what we needed so didn't worry about it.

[2cutiekitties]

they just drove by our house! It is all comps....not very fair though.

[bobandjess99]

hhhmmmmmm...can I object/argue as to how my houseis described?? IT's listed as a 2 bd 1 bath, 816 sq ft.
Which, I suppose is true..for the 1st floor. But, the basement is completely finished, and besides the utility and laundry rooms,there are 2 large bedrooms, 1 small office, and a bathroom.
If they count short sales, we're completely screwed...completely. I happen to know that the house right next door to us (identical flrooplan) just sold for $17K (yep, that's right, not a typo).
*sigh*

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by bobandjess99

hhhmmmmmm...can I object/argue as to how my houseis described?? IT's listed as a 2 bd 1 bath, 816 sq ft.
Which, I suppose is true..for the 1st floor. But, the basement is completely finished, and besides the utility and laundry rooms,there are 2 large bedrooms, 1 small office, and a bathroom.
If they count short sales, we're completely screwed...completely. I happen to know that the house right next door to us (identical flrooplan) just sold for $17K (yep, that's right, not a typo).
*sigh*

You can object, but for re-fi's most banks just use comps. Since the credit market has tightened banks are not as generous with funding, there just isnt as much $ to go around. Your basement may be finished but it all depends if those rooms are up to firecode, building code etc. Plus if your EXACT floor plan just sold for 17k you could have a problem.

[lmonter]

Newer windows/doors that are tighter/more energy efficient is about all I can think of, but I don't know how much of your investment will affect the appraisal price. Appraisers can look beyond your general day-to-day mess/clutter, so don't stress about making your house picture perfect. They're just there for the bones and basics, not that there's more than three scuffs on your baseboard molding.

At least that's what our appraiser a few years ago told me when I said I almost apologized for the mess, but hey, I'm not Mrs. Cleaver. He spent a good hour wandering from room to room with his tape measure, asking a few questions about the yard since it was pretty snowy outside (so measuring the garden wasn't easily doable).

[BetsyS]

We were hoping for a refi earlier in the year, and our appraisal was completely based on comps as well.

Unfortunately for us, only one house in our neighborhood has sold in the last 27 months. And, it was a foreclosure that sold for much, much less than we owe on our house. We have an 80/20 loan, and our bank was willing to refinance just the 80% mortgage, at up to 105% of the appraised value of the house. It still wasn't enough, because the comps were so low.

Stinks.

[FillingMyQuiver]

Originally Posted by bobandjess99

hhhmmmmmm...can I object/argue as to how my houseis described?? IT's listed as a 2 bd 1 bath, 816 sq ft.
Which, I suppose is true..for the 1st floor. But, the basement is completely finished, and besides the utility and laundry rooms,there are 2 large bedrooms, 1 small office, and a bathroom.
If they count short sales, we're completely screwed...completely. I happen to know that the house right next door to us (identical flrooplan) just sold for $17K (yep, that's right, not a typo).
*sigh*

You can object if you want to, but I can tell you how I appraisal was done when we bought our house. We have 3bd, 2ba upstairs. Our basement is 90% finished w/ an unfinished utility/ laundry room, 1bd, and 1/2ba.

Our basement bedroom doesn't count the same way as our upstairs 3 b/c it's below grade. Even though our basement is NOT underground, is a daylight/ walkout basement and only the wall at the front of the house has 2ft under dirt and the whole rest of the basement is above ground, it's still considered below grade.

And yep, comps are going to make or break your appraisal. When we bought our house, there were A LOT of short sales going on and the foreclosures were just starting in our area. Our appraisal was about $30K lower than the "normal" sales b/c of them.

[mnnice]

With the limited information you've shared I'm not convinced that a refi would make sense in a strong real estate market let alone a crappy one where the best comp just sold for $17,000.

The cheaper your house is the longer it is going to take to recoupe the fixed expenses in a refi. Even if your closing costs are pretty minimal that is money that is not going to go toward getting out of debt.

As to your orginal questions. I wouldn't do any repair or upgrades with the hope of getting a better appraisal because again that's money that's not going to help get you out of debt.

[bobandjess99]

Well, I guess it doesn't hurt to call the broker and see what he has to say, but it's not looking good. I do know that another house on our block (also identical floorplan, they're all the same) just sold in the neighborhood of $80K, which is what the homes on our street are usually worth. But then that short sale next to us just sold for $17K, so who knows. I suppose the worst thing that can happen is we get the appraisal, it's too low, so we don't refi.

[karne]

I would call. Not all companies use short sales or foreclosures in comps, so it is worth it to find out.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by karne

I would call. Not all companies use short sales or foreclosures in comps, so it is worth it to find out.

Right. Our problem with the sale mentioned above was that despite it selling for 100K under what anything else has sold for, it was neither a short sale or a foreclosure. The family could comfortably afford the house when they built it 7 years ago, got into financial issues 5 years ago and started renting it out (they owned multiple properties and moved to another in a less favorable for renting location), and finally dumped it for just enough to cover the remaining mortgage when they realized the damage that had occurred due to the renters and that they couldn't find more renters without repairing that.

So it was a valid sale for comps, just a bad sale for comps.

[EFmom]

I can't think of much that wouldn't cost money. The appraisal for our refi was really very objective. It was based on square footage, school district, number of rooms, location, upgrades, physical attributes, etc. The paint job, cleaning, etc. didn't play into it in any appreciable way. The guy spent a long time and measured everything, and looked carefully at the details and structure of the house. He knew the neighborhood inside and out.

It wasn't like trying to make a house appealing to a buyer at all.