Appraisal Today

When I purchased my side of the duplex I did it with style. I got in with nothing down. I took no points, tossed it in a 3 year to ARM for 30 at 6.8%. I figured I’d refi it when the time was right for a better package. I’m a year out from when I go adjustable and I decided to go ahead and give Wachovia another account. Right now I’m already redoing my equity line to open up into a better area than I previously had (need a little more capital to add to the Caffe’). The bank, to say the least, is happy with my consumption of services. Working with our local branch man Anthony Bare he hooked me up with Scott Burns in Wachovia’s Mortgage department. It looks like they are going to lock me into a 5.25% for 15yrs for only an additional 150$ a month. Sounds pretty good to me. Robin and I check out amazing enough on our credit scores. I think that our sound ability to finance has really hit a home run here.

Anyhow, on to the topic which was the appraisal. We slaved most of the weekend on a real ditch effort for cleaning and purging. We easily threw out 75% of our clothing and old-junk. It is amazing how easy it is to keep things rather than give them up. We held no quarter for those items which were iffy. Either you have purpose or you don’t. You are showing aging, or you are not. Everything in respectable condition is in my truck ready for Goodwill. Anything that has gone past their needs hit the trashcan. This has caused a serious weight to be lifted off of us. The home actually feels lighter now. I can see carpet in so many places that before held a forlorn box or piles of shirts.

After going through the appraisal a few years ago I knew that all of our work was really in vain. They aren’t looking for many of the things we cleaned and handled. We used the pressure of what they were coming for to help leverage our desire to do a thurough cleaning. The lady who came was in and out of the house in 10-15 minutes. Very nice, courteous, flick flick of a tape measure through the house a handful of questions and she was gone. However our place still looks dyn-o-mite. I certainly hope the numbers come back what we expect them to. I’ve been burned before on what I expected their to be and what happened. Appraising is a lot of subjectivity and you hope the pull up fair numbers for your apple to apple comparison. My neighbor got a great number on his property and I hope to gain the same. I’ll be sitting real pretty if that happens.

-a