Home buying thread

Zillow can't be used as a barometer at all. I made the mistake of thinking it would be about a +/- 5-8% standard deviation when I went to refinance in January.

Zillow said my house was worth 290k, it appraised for 248k.

"At all" is a little strong.

I'm just saying you really have no idea how far off and innacurate it can be at any given time if it's the only thing your using to determine value.

Zillow estimates are about as accurate as their real estate listings. Hint: They aren't.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day though.

meStevo_sl said:

Eh, it's useful in context. Our realtor thinks it significantly undervalues homes in our area, and I can see my exact model sold in march for $200k and there are others that have built up to that number over the last several months. The house across the street that's 250sqft smaller with a 1-car garage and no covered patio just sold for $190k ($5k over Zillow) after being on the market for 9 days.

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Some things I figure from Zillow:

* it's biased towards new construction
* it doesn't consider acreage
* it operates off of something other than what the homeowner officially inputs
* it has a real hard time valuing non-cookie-cutter developments

I'm ok with it as long as Zillow and its ilk never ever control official appraisals. It's useful to get a rough idea of what's for sale and sometimes selling history.

We did 10% down on a conventional loan. Our mortgage company sends us a letter every year informing us that they are required to remove our PMI when we hit 78% or whatever. We can also pay for an appraisal on our own if we think the house has gone up in value and we reach it sooner.

Eyashusa_sl said:

We did 10% down on a conventional loan. Our mortgage company sends us a letter every year informing us that they are required to remove our PMI when we hit 78% or whatever. We can also pay for an appraisal on our own if we think the house has gone up in value and we reach it sooner.

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That is interesting and something I never considered. Can you actually get PMI removed if a newer house appraisal tips you over 78%? What about the opposite if the market turns? I just assumed PMI was locked at the purchase appraisal price. (Again, me assuming)

Yes you can get rid of PMI with an appraisal. They usually use their own appraiser. No they can't add it if value drops.

I'm pretty sure there are some additional restrictions (cooling period, etc.) to use an appraisal vs purchased price. IE, you can't buy a house for 150K/160K that's really worth 210K from a shortsale and just have it appraised 30 days after close.

Palum_sl said:

I'm pretty sure there are some additional restrictions (cooling period, etc.) to use an appraisal vs purchased price. IE, you can't buy a house for 150K/160K that's really worth 210K from a shortsale and just have it appraised 30 days after close.

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Not sure what you mean by this. Are there situations where houses aren't appraised during a purchase?

Short-sales and such can often times be sold "as is", meaning there will be no concessions made due to findings during an inspection but there is still usually an appraisal isn't there?

Khane_sl said:

Not sure what you mean by this. Are there situations where houses aren't appraised during a purchase?

Short-sales and such can often times be sold "as is", meaning there will be no concessions made due to findings during an inspection but there is still usually an appraisal isn't there?

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They are but pretty sure PMI is assessed based upon the 'worse' of LTV or loan-to-selling-price.

In my experience, places that have huge price differential under market value are wrecked and are not eligible for financing from the get go. So the PMI thing really doesn't come into play like that very often.

So I'm in insurance, we insure a lot of homes and therefore get a lot of requests for insurance documents for home closings...I see a lot of them every year.

Here in the last few months I'm seeing a HUGE uptick in loan paperwork where the loan amount is actually greater than the purchase price of the home. I hadn't seen hardly any of those over the past 6-7 years since the housing market crash(used to be REAL common a decade ago). I'm a little shocked they are starting to pop back up again. I can't imagine any bank/lender that could rationalize lending more than the purchase price of a home. Are these companies actually allowing no down payment and then giving even more money on top of that? Seems odd knowing the current state of the mortgage industry.

I didn't think anyone was doing those and they can't be through Freddie or Fannie as those are 3 to 5% down minimum. Maybe a crazy local bank is going all in. Who is the mortgagee clause for?

Call me old fashioned. But one of the reasons I was in favor of the 20% down was in case things went to shit you had at least some chance of unloading your house without a foreclosure.

Renovation loans? I know homepath offered that on my trashcan

Kedwyn_sl said:

I didn't think anyone was doing those and they can't be through Freddie or Fannie as those are 3 to 5% down minimum. Maybe a crazy local bank is going all in. Who is the mortgagee clause for?

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You're right, I just looked at the 3 that are currently on my desk pending closings in July that have loan amounts higher than purchase price, and all 3 are local lenders. 2 are credit unions, and 1 a local mortgage broker.