The Appraisal Arrives

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted but have very busy with work and working all the details on the house build.   I will start posting updates tonight but will start with the appraisal.

I told the bank to just give me a phrase "the eagle has landed" if it is good news when they hear.  Well, they sent an email with the appraisal and it said "you better sit down for this one" .... so you can guess where this is headed.  I was already sitting so I opened the email and the appraisal was like 30 pages long so I scanned quickly toward the bottom (thinking the value would be listed there) and couldn't find it.  Went back to the top and started reading - the value was $3,000 over what we wanted and everyone including the bank truly expected it to come in $30-$50k undervalue.

All I could say was Thank you Lord.  I was trembling inside because it was a miracle it came in so high.  God is great!!

Evidently the bank has internal appraisers that also review it to make sure it is legit and can stand up to any scrutiny by upper management - they said the guy did a professional job and the lengthy report was because he had some much supporting evidence.

Now that hurdle is behind us and the bank wants updated financials of everything to finalize the construction loan.  I also tweaked the numbers as I had to put the provide the last budget to the bank.  For each line item (there are about 50), I had to state the total amount, the amount I am paying in cash, the amount the bank is funding, the amount the bank isn't funding.

For example, under the landscaping line item:

$30,000 budget
$5,000 I'm paying out of pocket (counts toward my overall down payment at the end)
$15,000 Bank is funding
$10,000 Not being funded (sweat equity I am doing)

I think putting the budget together (my detail one has over 400 lines) and the detail list of materials probably took me at least 40 hours to put together.  So glad it is done and hopefully all my work will keep us on track.  I've already found about $20k that I will be able to save by negotiating and bundling.