Someone send in the waambulance

[nervous buyer]

First time home buyer going through the VA. Our max is $350k which is pretty much the bare minimum of a home in San Diego County. Found a few homes in East County, but cash buyers quickly swooped in.

We went a little further East and found a sweet place in Alpine. Offer made. Offer accepted. Escrow begins. At the end of escrow winding down the issue arises. The home/property is on two combined/yet separate parcels. VA will only fund a loan for one home on one parcel of land.

Our realtor wants another appraisal with just the home and parcel it’s on. The original appraisal came through and the value of the home/property is $30k above the selling price. My fiance and I fear we will lose another $400 on the appraisal, because the home will come in under the selling price.

My wine…the seller got a free inspection with what was needed to upgrade the home to sell. The listing agent now knows it can’t work with a VA buyer. My fiance and I walk away having put in $1k out of the $3,500 escrow.

Feeling frustrated. Should we find another agent? Someone more experienced with VA loans? I feel an experienced VA agent would have seen the red flag as soon as it saw the property was on two parcels.

Thanks All,

– S

[HLS]

If the home is on just one parcel have your Realtor pay for a new appraisal and see what happens. Do you need the other parcel ?
Have them deed it to you separately.

There are creative ways for you to get this done.
Most Realtors don’t know much about loan qualifying and financing. A Realtor is not a loan officer. (Unless they are licensed for both!)

I don’t understand why this problem didn’t come up the first week when the preliminary title report
was received by the lender.

Call the county and ask about the cost/time frame
to do a ‘lot line adjustment’
It is possible to create a larger lot if necessary.

(I’m Realtor AND licensed for loans)

[EconProf]

trust HLS

[nervous buyer]

Thank you for your reply. We found out today the home came back with a new appraisal of $305k. Our broker apologized and offered to pay for the next inspection. Somehow the home was appraised at $375k and a week later is appraised for $305k?

The search continues. Thank you again for your reply.

[HLS]

Any appraisal is the opinion of the appraiser, but always backed up with valid comps however that is an unusually large spread.
Not all appraisers are VA approved. Both of yours should have been.

Was the $305K for 1 parcel or both ?
the $375K was for 2 parcels, correct ?

If you still like the property, try to negotiate price, terms & lot adjustment.

[nervous buyer]

Thank you again for your post. The VA appraisal came back with $305k for the home with both parcels. The sellers owe $320k and can’t lower their price much further.

To be honest my fiance and I both feel relieved escrow didn’t go through. The day before escrow fell through I drove by the house and began regretting our decision; the rosy feeling was just not there and I felt we had over paid.

I am pretty realistic about the type of home we can find in our price range, but the home in Alpine was more if a 1 br as the other br was the size of a small office. The room bugged me, and I know it would have bugged me more having to look at it everyday and squeezing a twin in for a guest room.

It worked out for the best in the end. The house hunt continues. Thank you again for your wisdom.

[HLS]

I would not suggest that anyone buy a house that they are not crazy about.
Things that you don’t like may bother you much more
later if they can’t be corrected.

Since you are relieved that this one didn’t close, walk away and don’t look back.

In the future, use the contingency period to figure out if it’s the right house for you.
Never let anyone else try to convince you to buy if your gut tells you otherwise.

There will be other houses to look at and buy.
Happy Hunting! HLS

[Author]

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