Heritage, I think I can empathize. My house was refinanced earlier this year as well. I was absolutely in a knot: we had bought the house right as the housing crisis hit 9 years ago, tried to refinance a year or so after we purchased it. Because the banks had been so lenient previously, (and because Atlanta was one of the epicenters for fraudulent mortgages!) the inspector went through the house with a fine.tooth.comb. Marched through every inch of property, measuring and commenting. I didn't have rabbits or anything then, either, and would have had issues if I had. While she commended us for how the place looked, we did not qualify because housing prices had dropped. Our home was worth more than what we paid for it, but barely, so we couldn't refinance because we didn't have enough equity yet and definitiely didn't have the cash to pay towards bridging the gap.
With that memory in mind as well as knowing I'd slowly turned the place into a mini-farm in the suburbs without anyone's knowledge or consent, I was a nervous wreck when we tried to refinance again. Had some medical issues going on also. Had some family crises happening as well as some home repairs (a bathroom plumbing failure that needed extensive renovation) so we absolutely needed the refinance to happen to add more cash, or give a baseline if we decided to sell. Was near the end of my rope so did not need a simple refi to turn into something much bigger. Terrified about the rabbits, since they did not technically exist and the neighbors had no clue, and it was clear there were more than a few pets. I ended up culling a lot, moving the select few left into a shed that I surrounded with wood fencing panels and then padlocked everything. Went crazy for days and nights inside the house finishing (or disguising) some projects the man of the house started but hadn't finished yet. The day of the appraisal, the appraiser called to say he would be 20 minutes late, which gave me enough time to drink a lot of coffee out of nervousnessand have a mini breakdown because of everything I was dealing with. When he got there I was polite but twitchy, red-eyed, and over it all and silently daring him to be negative, make remarks about upkeep or ask me to open the shed. He walked in the house, glanced in each room, briefly peeked up the stairs, looked out the back at our lot and verbally confirmed acreage, then stepped outside. I thought he was measuring; turns out he left. I wasn't sure why, and was alternately grateful and terrified. (Also a bit ticked because of all the extreme measures I'd gone through and he didn't even look at those areas.) Turns out some recent sales had pushed the price of land and homes up in this area, so base prices were very good. For the amount we were seeking to refinance, apparently he didn't feel the need to delve deeply. We got a generous appraisal and refinanced.
My moral? I wish I would have followed Maggie's advice:
MaggieJ":3a6xv8wd said:
I guess what I am saying is set and enforce reasonable safeguards, be prepared to take action should it be necessary, but don't live expecting problems around every corner. The price you pay for ongoing anxiety or paranoia is too high.
You are legally sanctioned to have your animals and homeschool, so if anyone pokes their nose in after the assessor, it sounds like a matter of showing them the paperwork or citing the ordinance and telling them to get the heck out. You've set your safeguards, are prepared for action, and can choose to enforce your safeguards if anyone gets in your business. No need to stress because that will only hurt you!
I hope it all went smoothly and you get the refinance. 2.65 for 15 years is great.
