Any news?
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Thanks for asking! Well the long and the short of it is that we are pre-approved with farm guy (went through everything ahead of time) and are just waiting on the new appraisal and underwriting.
In the meantime, the sellers agreed to let us live here (and bring our horses). It has made a few things somewhat awkward (the boarding transition etc is not going to be clean), but it seems to be working out ok.
So now we are just waiting (again) but we are in our future new home and I’ve spent the last few days in farm mode!
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just curious, what insurance coverage do you have for such a situation as closing may be farther off than just a few days? Renters?
I might just be bare for a short time, but not comfortable …but our insurance provider does have ways to bridge the gaps.
When my brother’s estate was held in limbo by the courts we had the homeowner’s policy amended to cover the property being vacant … which was a good thing since there was storm damage in month seven (also well over a year now we still do not have the court’s approval to exercise the contract that we have on the place, they keep claiming everything is the fault of COVID19 )
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I had the same thing happen on my comps when applying for my construction loan, even though my house plans clearly showed stick built house he used two mobile homes in the top three comps, one that was 30 years old! Needless to say my appraisal came in about $10k low and I was pissed. Still doable but geez.
Renters. It isn’t perfect but it will work.
It’s been Mr Toad’s wild ride so far. I’ve dealt with crying workers, a cast horse, two horses leaving that no one knew about, a flat tractor tire, and 100+ bales of straw delivered early with no clear place to put them. You know, a barn owner’s life 
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That’s the pits!! I feel like this process ought to be easier 
The whole thing feels backwards to me!
Yet another appraiser came to the house, got out, and decided he couldn’t do the job. Not sure which part of this is funny yet, but it is becoming super entertaining. At least Farm Finance guy was super apologetic and said they didn’t follow the guidelines that they were supposed to for a hobby farm.
I really didn’t think this was going to be this difficult. Apparently, it is.
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You gotta laugh, or you would be bald from tearing your hair out by now!
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That is for sure. I suppose that’s the way farm life is anyway, but I am just so anxious to get it all done since we’re in this awkward period where we’re living here but the former owner is still doing some caretaking and that’s just weird.
Well, here we are, at the end of June. Hoping that appraiser #5 will do the job. We met this one, and he seemed like he was going to be able to do it. If so, our closing date is at the end of the month.
The beautiful transition that I had planned has been brutal, full of miscommunications and unknowns. We’ve sank about $3k already into feed/hay/bedding/fans/implements/repairs and we don’t even own the place nor have we received a penny from board.
As it turns out, the seller wasn’t done with their necessary repairs anyway. Not even close. I’m thinking that he was thinking he could get away with not doing it if we closed earlier. And these aren’t small repairs. It’s a puzzle.
We’re afraid to unpack, lest this all fall apart. I’m beginning to wonder if the universe isn’t telling us that maybe we shouldn’t buy this place.
But of course, maybe that’s just me trying to rationalize everything going on. I’m really hoping that this appraiser comes back with a value, and it’s a value that we can all agree on so we can just get this done.
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OP I’m so sorry you are dealing with this. You are brave to rent!
We are in a different yet similar pickle with our farm we are under contract on. We were offered the opportunity to rent and we said no because we are worried the deal would fall through.
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rather than delay a closing have an escrow account setup to cover any uncompleted repairs … just double whatever the agreed upon cost or have a set limit of dollars for repairs
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Yep that is what we did. Helped us close on time and get the work done how we wanted it.
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That’s a great idea if the lender and mortgage product will allow it.
Every conditional approval letter I issue includes a condition that states “subject property can not be subject to any repairs” and a condition that states “subject to satisfactory appraisal to be reviewed prior to settlement. Any repairs must be completed prior to appraisal and an additional charge will be applied for an extra trip for the appraiser to verify any repairs are completed prior to review of appraisal”. There are other loan products that won’t have those conditions.
For the types of loans I work, the appraiser will generally refuse to valuate a property that needs repairs. What the actual guidelines are for what constitutes a “repair” is unknown to me.
Example, our current home had a few minor issues noted on the home inspection (some valve on the water heater, insulation thin in one spot in attic, unusual plumbing in vanity drain) but none that stopped the appraisal. The sellers agreed verbally to repair most of those items and actually did so (much to our delight). However, the home needed a new roof when it was listed. The sellers were up front that a new roof was required and plainly stated their willingness to re roof the home once a contract was agreed on for purchase. The roof had to be done prior to appraisal as that was a repair that would prevent the appraiser from issuing a value (and also prevent us from acquiring insurance).
common practice … the seller has to agree to having the funds retained by the escrow agent for disbursement, any excess is returned to seller
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We really didn’t have a choice. We had sold our house because of the pressure that the RE agents put on us, and had nowhere else to go, our buyers needed it by the end of May, so if we would have made it contingent we would have lost our buyer. So it was hotel or rent from the sellers. We would have spent a month in a hotel with an elderly dog and our stuff in storage…not sure where we would have stashed the horses. I’m not sure I can imagine that (or maybe I can…which is horrifying LOL).
I’m so sorry you’re going through this as well…misery loves company? I have to believe that it will be resolved somehow…I just wasn’t ready for it to be such an ordeal.
Certainly some products will allow it. Others won’t. So like I said previously, it will depend on the lender and the product.
Now that the OP has revealed that certain repairs were supposed to be done but as of now haven’t been done I’m curious if that was the root of the previous troubles getting an appraisal. I doubt an appraiser is worried about some questionable fencing in the back or similar so the needed repairs might not have any impact at all. But at the same time I’ve seen some appraisals come back incomplete for some issues I wouldn’t consider very important.
OP: Best of luck getting this squared away! I’m sure you are tired of stressing over it!
Yes, that’s what I’d like to get to. It’s just been hard to value since they have insisted on doing everything themselves.
I believe our appraiser can issue the appraisal despite the repairs not being done, although I have no idea if that’s the case or not. I raised a stink before he came because I found out that the tenant’s bathroom wasn’t going to be finished (and still isn’t), and he didn’t indicate that there would be a problem, although who knows at this juncture.
Appraisal due date is today as is loan commitment. It’s 3:28 my time…what are the chances it all comes in before 5pm?
Fingers crossed for you!
Has your lender reported that they have received the appraisal yet?
The process in familiar with is: lender receives appraisal from appraiser, lender reviews appraisal and either accepts it as satisfactory or declines it (unusual but it happens), then a copy of appraisal is forwarded to the applicant. At that point the loan is cleared to move forward and in your case a commitment to lend can be issued.
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