Appraisal Woes

We stopped by the lot on Sunday during a leisurely drive.  It's kinda depressing to continually drive by your lot when there isn't even a hole or foundation or anything, but we apparently like torturing ourselves.  The nice thing was our utilities ditch was filled in, so at least that's a step in the right direction.  And, they installed curbs in part of the new road that's going in for the rest of our Phase III.  So, we did a lot of walking/trespassing in the other bits of land -- standing on hills and saying things like: "This is a great view!"  "Yeah, but no walkout up here!"  "What's this giant ditch for?"  Etc, etc.

We stopped by the model home office to see if our SR had heard anything back about the topography map yet (we haven't put in the order for any basement windows yet, since we're waiting on the topo map before knowing how the land will be graded around the back/walkout).  Unfortunately, no topo map yet, but we did get unexpected news on the appraisal.  I believe my husband had posted before about our concerns (and RH's concerns) about how much our house costs to build in relation to how much it's actually "worth" in the bank's mind.  Well, we have been waiting to hear back about a pre-appraisal that was requested to see how different those two numbers will be.

There will be at least a $27,000 difference.

I say at least because we haven't included any basement windows yet into that price (there will be at least 2 full windows, but possibly 4, depending on grading).

We cannot make up this difference alone, since we are not getting any kind of landscaping in our community (not offered in NE Ohio) and the bulk of the money in our savings will be going toward that eventually.  Also, we kinda need furniture, you know, to like, use and live with?

So, now we wait.  We wait for word from our SR, who said she would speak with the Sales Manager to see what they can do to help us.  This is a critical time.  If they can't help us out, we will have to walk away.  I've been trying not to get too emotionally involved in this house for this exact reason, but it's been very very hard.

We keep saying things like, "In the next house..." and "We'll have to wait until the new house before we can..."  Now, I feel the need to qualify these statements with, "Well, in this next house, or whatever we ultimately build..."  We shopped at the local grocery store near our (hopefully) future new community Sunday after meeting with the SR.  Upon walking in, I said that we shouldn't even bother shopping here, and instead we should go back and shop at our current local store, since that's the one we'll likely be shopping at for the next 2-3 years while we continue to save up enough to buy some nice land and build from scratch.  I'm a rather negative person, although I would prefer to use the word "realistic."

So you, Dear Readers, will likely hear back from us at some point, most likely to chronicle the back-and-forth between us and RH that will inevitably come from this current issue.  But let's hope you also hear good news from us -- that we were able to come to a middle ground, and that we will be moving forward again, no longer tentatively.

Moving forward...

  After a long discussion, my wife and I have decided to move forward with building the Jefferson, as long as the pre-appraisal comes in at the right amount.  We simply like the lot and the layout of the model too much to walk away at this point, even with all of the stuff we will have to rip out and replace after closing.  We signed our "final change order" last Friday, but there will be one more after the topography map is completed since we are waiting to hear back on some basement window placements.