Appraise the Lord!

I think I might have been drugged and/or sleepwalking when we bought our first house because I don't remember being as stressed out as I am now.

Perhaps were were just naive and unaware or maybe it was the decent market at the time or better yet, maybe our realtor has gotten more dramatic since we last worked with her. No matter what the reason, there has not been a full 24 hours since we started this whole home buying/selling process where I have not been stressed or worried about something.

First came the unexpected emotional battle over the purchase of our new house. The negotiation process started off on a good foot, but then evolved into the seller irrationally questioning if she wanted to move at all. Um. Listen lady, we sold our house, we want your house, we're offering you big bucks... take it.

Then came the inspection from hell on our current home... okay, I'm being dramatic, but still... it was a tough (and moldy) pill to swallow - check out the "There's a Fungus Among Us" post to read more about that all out cry-fest. 

Once we accepted that our home wasn't as solid as we thought it was, we pulled ourselves together and started addressing all the issues to comply with our buyers' wishes. We were feeling good and thought the worst was past us until our realtor said, "Let's just hope your home appraises now."

Uh. Come again?

Our realtor proceeded to tell us that homes twice the size of the home we're selling were being sold for LESS than ours. I knew weeks earlier that we got a decent amount for our home given the market, but it was still a steal as far as I was concerned and I finally didn't regret all the upgrades we put into the house because they were seemingly paying off.

But our realtor explained that after the housing market crashed appraisers were tougher than ever and now looking more at square footage than actual upgrades and there may be a chance our home will appraise less than it was purchased for.

Again, I think I have must have been in a daze when we purchased this house years ago because this whole concept of appraisal never stuck in mind. And now, here were are, learning that if our house appraises for less than the purchase price, we may have to pay the difference.

Panic set in.

I started to think, "Can an appraiser be bribed?" "Does the fact that my and husband and I are a cute couple increase the home's value? Maybe I should put out more pictures of us..."

Well, more weeks went by that I could barely sleep as I anxiously awaited the appraisal report and then yesterday our realtor called with the news...

"Your home appraised!!"

Phew. I don't know why I was so nervous - I knew all the effort we put into our home would pay off (and the cookies and milk we left out for the appraiser), but I'm still shocked by the insanity of this entire home selling process.

One panic attack down... just a few more to go!