And the bad news keeps coming

Bad news first, right? The house didn't appraise. It came in $20,000 under the contracted price, which is unreasonable, unbelievable and pretty much the biggest disaster we could have imagined. Our lease is up on the apartment in three days, and there is no closing on the house in sight, ugh. Talk about a disappointment.

So the appraisal...we all thought this should have been pretty much a "rubber stamp" kind of deal. We did a pre-construction appraisal to MAKE SURE THIS KIND OF THING WOULDN'T HAPPEN. The house was built to the specs it was originally appraised at, and its only been 90 days, so how is it possible that the house is suddenly worth $20,000 less?

Lauren (the realtor) says that the appraiser used bad "comps" (which for those of you who aren't in the throws of building or buying a house means "comparable properties.") Essentially the appraiser has to go out and look at other houses of a similar size, area, location etc. and compare them to the house in question. What we've been hearing from Lauren is that he used comps of much lesser homes - those with 2x4s instead of 2x6s for the walls, little to no molding, and without fencing. Our builder just got a virtually identical home in the same development (that's only 200 square feet larger) appraised for $80,000 more than ours just was. 200 square feet - no matter how nice - does not equate to an $80,000 difference.

And, to make matters worse, it appraised for less than the builders cost to actually build the home. Something went wrong.

So now we have a few options, most of which are worse than the next.

Option 1: Bob lowers the price of the house - this is extremely unlikely as I can't imagine he would take a loss on the house. Although, with the low appraisal, he can't sell it to ANYONE at his current asking price.

Option 2: We come to the table with the difference. Not a possibility, unless I win the lottery...which I don't usually play.

Option 3: We fight the appraisal.

Option 4: We walk away - I don't even know if this is possible, and regardless we DON'T want to! I got to build the home I wanted, with all my favorite details, in the perfect location. That's not something I want to give up lightly.

Look at this kitchen!

So as of right now we are fighting the appraisal. Lauren is going back to the appraiser and the bank with what we consider real comps. If they don't accept the new comps, we would have to go out for another appraisal. And the underwriters are telling us that if we get a second appraisal, and it comes in drastically different than the first, we would have to go out and possibly get a THIRD APPRAISAL. I guess it makes sense - two licensed appraisers come in with different numbers, how do you know who is really right? So now the waiting game begins.

In the meantime, Brad, Zahzu and I have to move out of the apartment. New tenants are set to move in next week, and as of right now we have nowhere to go. We'll have to get a hotel I suppose. But, if this is going to be weeks or months in the making, we'll have to find another apartment. What a pain in the you-know-what.

I don't know what this will do to all of our plans. Brad's parents are coming into town next week - to help us get settled in the new house. And my family has tickets booked to have Thanksgiving dinner at the new house too. All of our plans are going out the window, and it just makes me want to cry.

So that's my story. I'll let you know if anything changes and we magically get to close on the house tomorrow, the way we were originally supposed to. Cross your fingers and toes for some divine intervention.