inspections and appraisals

The house was inspected last Monday and appraised this Monday, and we're still moving forward. Every category in the inspection was scored "Deficient," but this wasn't really a shock. Despite the house's obvious problems, the inspector still walked us around and detailed everything he'd found and how to fix it (instead of just writing it off as a tear-down). He had a couple of good surprises, for instance that some of the plumbing had already been replaced and the roof can probably make it another year.

I didn't know anyone in the area, so I found my inspector on Angie's List. That worked out really well for me as sort of a test run for using the service. I was able to comparison shop between inspectors with good reputations and saved about $100 off of what the other companies wanted. I got another $50 off the estimated price for agreeing that he could send me his photos of the home separately, instead of embedding them in the report PDF.

The appraisal I had no control over. The appraiser called me up when he was done and asked for $400, which was the first time I'd heard of him. Sadly, his appraisal wasn't the same figure as what I'd been told the house appraised for in April. This appraisal is about $20K less, so I feel less as though I'm getting a good deal. However, the price is still below the appraised value, so the loan should go through.