Appraisal question

[SusanBAnthony]

Has anyone refi'ed lately and had to do an appraisal?  @juno I know you have.

How thorough was the appraiser?  Was it a drive by, or did they come in?

We plan to do an appraisal and refi as soon as we can, to drop PMI.  We bought for 230k, appraised for 250k, Nd need to appraise for about 270k.  

Other houses in the neighborhood that have sold recently are in the 250-280k range.  The houses are all similar size, similar age.  The differences are that some are larger lots, a few have a third car garage, some have finished basements, and other than that, it is interior finishes.  Our house is builder basic on the inside- original 10 year old carpet (clean but worn), Lino floors in kitchen and bath, etc.  The only upgrade we have is granite kitchen counters and new kitchen appliances.

I am curious if the interior stuff will matter much in the appraisal.  We will rip out the carpet and it in hardwood, for example, and we might do it sooner than later if it will bump us up on the appraisal.  We also will finish the basement at some point.  But if they are just driving by the outside and calculating a price per square foot, we won't bother hurrying up to get that done.

Is there any way to tell what kind of appraisal they will do, or do you just have to wait and see?

[susieq]

When we had an appraisal for our line of credit the bank asked us what type of appraisal we wanted. The drive by was around $200 less than if they came in.

When we refinanced they came into our house. I made sure that I was home and followed them through the house mentioning all the upgrades that we had done since purchase. They said knowing what we had upgraded helped in raising the appraisal price.

[Deleted]

When I asked about appraisals here it sounded like the is a wiiiiide variety of what's being required. Ours was an inside with tons of pics, ratings of condition,etc. it took 3 weeks with underwriters involved. Some people said they were just getting drivebys. Maybe depends on the bank?