How to Challenge a Home Appraisal

Just before year end I told you that we were refinancing our house again, this time to a 15-year, 4.25% fixed-rate loan. The goal was to drop our interest rate by another .75% and save about $1,600 dollars per year in interest payments. Unfortunately our house, which had dropped $55,000 in value the last time we refinanced, has dropped a whopping $35,000 more in the last 7 months. Why? because a few... 

What Matters for Home Appraisals

Recently, we’ve been going through the process of refinancing our mortgage. One part of the process is a getting an appraisal done. I was very interested to find out how much our house is worth, and how the upgrades have impacted the value. Fortunately, the house appraised well. It was at the top of the range! Most of the upgrades really helped our house stand out from the rest. However, it’s...