Refinance -- Now It's the Foundation, Sigh...
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 2:35 pm
We have been trying for 2 years to our dream home, which is a 20-yr old very nice Palm Harbor doublewide on 2 acres, with a detached large stick-built "addition" that includes a 2-car garage. The home was a short sale, after our first financing attempt (FHA) fell through, we invested $20,000 to pay up the seller's unpaid mortgage amount to keep the property from going into foreclosure, and the price was accordingly lowered for us. We also paid to have some fixes done to satisfy appraiser as the seller could not afford them. When our second financing attempt (VA) also fell through, and foreclosure was again looming, we went with a private lender just to get the purchase "done". That lender charges 12% interest, so our monthly payments are so high that we are in a tight box as we are retired and on Social Security. All our payments only go to interest, nothing to principal. So by now we have about another $22,000 into this place.
After 6 months from purchase, we tried to refinance -- that also fell through, we found out after the fact that most lenders don't want to refi until owners have a year in the home.
We are now 1-1/2 years living in the home and applied in August to refinance (FHA).
We have had 3 previous appraisals. The first 2 were done before we bought the place via the private lender, and they came in at a fair value for this property. The 3rd appraisal came in at exactly what we paid for it (not counting the $20,000 we had already paid in -- it came in at just the amount we borrowed from the private lender). The current and 4th appraisal came in at just $2000 higher than what we paid for it. So the last 2 appraisals have been at least $20,000 lower than what we would conservatively expect the value to be. If the current lender application does go through, we'll be paying almost another $10,000 out of pocket to close the deal.
The recent appraiser put conditions on his appraisal. He wants the security bars taken off all the windows, says they are a violation of HUD. The bedrooms have quick release security bars, and we think he is wrong that the bars are a HUD violation. So that's one thing.
Secondly, he wants a certification that the "addition" is not attached to the manufactured home. It is built up against the mfg home, but is not attached, it is unfinished on the interior but was built to code and had passed all inspections up to the time the seller had to stop work on it. This "addition" is on its own separate foundation. Previous 3 appraisers have also raised concerns that the "addition" was attached, which is the reason the 3 previous deals fell through. We thought that the inspection records should be enough to prove that it was not attached, we didn't know that we could get an engineer to come and certify that or we would have done it up front. So in that sense this appraiser has done us a favor by wanting the engineer to certify ... too bad it cost us for 3 previous appraisers to find this out.
Thirdly, this appraiser wants the foundation of the mfg home to be certified. We had that done by a civil engineering firm for our first financing application -- well, the bank had it done and we paid for it. That engineer certified that the foundation of the mfg home, also the foundation of the "addition" and the foundation of the front porch/deck all met HUD requirements, etc. But the present bank wants it done again because the previous certification is 2 years old.
So an engineer came out to give us an estimate for the certification he can provide, and he says that if there are no tie-down straps for the mfg home, we will have to have "tapcons" (type of screw) done around the base of the mfg home where it connects with the solid cinderblock foundation walls. We looked under the mfg home and we don't see any tie-down metal straps. The home was affixed in 1994 and is in Arizona, not in a hurricane or particularly high-wind location. It is on a pier/beam foundation with metal supports every 6 feet. Those supports rest directly on the ground, and when we've looked at mfg home foundation pictures on the Net, it looks like most such metal supports sit on a piece of concrete.
So we could do the tapcons that the engineer mentioned might be needed -- he would charge $600 to do them, but we can do them ourselves for way less. But we are kind of concerned now about the pier/beam thing -- is that going to be an issue when the engineer actually sees it?
By now too, we are practically running on "empty" in terms of finances, we don't have much money left to take care of things that appraisers/lenders may require.
Any helpful thoughts or information?
After 6 months from purchase, we tried to refinance -- that also fell through, we found out after the fact that most lenders don't want to refi until owners have a year in the home.
We are now 1-1/2 years living in the home and applied in August to refinance (FHA).
We have had 3 previous appraisals. The first 2 were done before we bought the place via the private lender, and they came in at a fair value for this property. The 3rd appraisal came in at exactly what we paid for it (not counting the $20,000 we had already paid in -- it came in at just the amount we borrowed from the private lender). The current and 4th appraisal came in at just $2000 higher than what we paid for it. So the last 2 appraisals have been at least $20,000 lower than what we would conservatively expect the value to be. If the current lender application does go through, we'll be paying almost another $10,000 out of pocket to close the deal.
The recent appraiser put conditions on his appraisal. He wants the security bars taken off all the windows, says they are a violation of HUD. The bedrooms have quick release security bars, and we think he is wrong that the bars are a HUD violation. So that's one thing.
Secondly, he wants a certification that the "addition" is not attached to the manufactured home. It is built up against the mfg home, but is not attached, it is unfinished on the interior but was built to code and had passed all inspections up to the time the seller had to stop work on it. This "addition" is on its own separate foundation. Previous 3 appraisers have also raised concerns that the "addition" was attached, which is the reason the 3 previous deals fell through. We thought that the inspection records should be enough to prove that it was not attached, we didn't know that we could get an engineer to come and certify that or we would have done it up front. So in that sense this appraiser has done us a favor by wanting the engineer to certify ... too bad it cost us for 3 previous appraisers to find this out.
Thirdly, this appraiser wants the foundation of the mfg home to be certified. We had that done by a civil engineering firm for our first financing application -- well, the bank had it done and we paid for it. That engineer certified that the foundation of the mfg home, also the foundation of the "addition" and the foundation of the front porch/deck all met HUD requirements, etc. But the present bank wants it done again because the previous certification is 2 years old.
So an engineer came out to give us an estimate for the certification he can provide, and he says that if there are no tie-down straps for the mfg home, we will have to have "tapcons" (type of screw) done around the base of the mfg home where it connects with the solid cinderblock foundation walls. We looked under the mfg home and we don't see any tie-down metal straps. The home was affixed in 1994 and is in Arizona, not in a hurricane or particularly high-wind location. It is on a pier/beam foundation with metal supports every 6 feet. Those supports rest directly on the ground, and when we've looked at mfg home foundation pictures on the Net, it looks like most such metal supports sit on a piece of concrete.
So we could do the tapcons that the engineer mentioned might be needed -- he would charge $600 to do them, but we can do them ourselves for way less. But we are kind of concerned now about the pier/beam thing -- is that going to be an issue when the engineer actually sees it?
By now too, we are practically running on "empty" in terms of finances, we don't have much money left to take care of things that appraisers/lenders may require.
Any helpful thoughts or information?