More Equity Questions- Value of Home

[keepsmiling]

Who, exactly, determines the value of your home, when headed for BK?

I am a little disenchanted with our lawyer. We sat down with her before not paying our cc's for the first time ever and explained about our house. It's in a neighborhood of mostly older, little Capes, We explained to her about our equity situation, made it pretty clear I thought, and wound up paying her extra to get a good comp.

Almost fell on the floor when that came thru at around 320K, she just had someone run something on a computer..... we need to be at no higher than 240 or so max to save our equity. (owe 215 altogether from 1st and Heloc) We really don't want to have to move since rents in the area are often more than the 1600 we are currently paying, and can't go too much smaller sincewe need room for dh's office and files. A realtor told us she can't use foreclosures for comps (??) which seems wrong since we could very well wind up in some kind of foreclosure....ack.

A house on the block sold a year ago, very beat up, major fixer-upper for 175 and was completely rebuilt top to bottom and flipped this year for 319. My house needs major work- new roof, new furnace, new steps, new fence, new landscaping,new plumbing etc- so would fall somewhere closer to the old selling price of the one down the street.To comp my house with this brand new house is just ridiculous. No one in their right mind would pay over 300 for this house, especially considering that we obviously won't assist to make the house more saleable forced to sell.

City Data shows estimated value 199-299K- I'd think we'd be at the lower end of that.... do I need to hire a broker? Any idea what that would cost? What exactly am I looking for?

[brokejoker]

We used our property tax appraisal for our valuation. Is there a way for you to contact a realtor yourself and have them look up recently sold homes in the area that are more comparable to yours as far as condition goes? Either that or find a good appraiser in your area and pay them to find your home's true value.

[discouraged]

I had a real estate agent do a CMA and the findings were that in my neighborhood houses were selling for $55k or so, sad when most of our mortgages are 124-175 and up. The real estate taxes went from when I bought my house, 124k to 85 this year and estimated 65 for next year. The real estate agent did it for free as they were the agency that I was involved with and they did a very good analysis of the surrounding area.

[jo23171]

Who, exactly, determines the value of your home, when headed for BK?

I don't have a home but in the papers I got from my lawyer it says to put down the value you see on zillow.com

[keepinitreal]

.....Almost fell on the floor when that came thru at around 320K, she just had someone run something on a computer.....

This is so important to your future, so don't be "penny-wise and pound-foolish" by using a free valuation calculated on-line. I recommend you pay for a professional appraisal to get the most accurate figure you can. Once you have that, you'll know better what your next steps should be. Good luck!

[LadyInTheRed]

Who, exactly, determines the value of your home, when headed for BK?

To answer that question, you list a value on your petition. That value will be used unless the trustee or a creditor decides it is too low and objects. You then may negotiate and agree to settle at a reasonable value. If you don't settle, each side would present evidence to support what they believe the value is, including appraisals and perhaps testimony by the appraisers. The judge would make the ultimate ruling as to value.

As keepingitreal points out, it is worth the money to hire a certified appraiser familiar with your local market. Ask a local realtor for a referral.

[keepsmiling]

brokejoker, they'd laugh if we used our prop tax appraisal, which is probably something in the 89K range...

jo, can't do zillow as that's even higher than the comp! it doesn't take house condition into consideration... their price would be if my house was in tiptop shape, which it is NOT... the low end of the CityData range is really more realistic.

My gut kinda told me what keepin and lady said- because we are in a high-priced area, the trustee could well object to a lowball number. We are waiting with bated breath to hear what a local home closed at yesterday that might be more applicable and will start looking for an appraiser. We actually qualify for some state funds to fix it up but won't do it til this is all over.... hope the funds are still available when we can use them....

Seems like we are in the opposite position of many on the board, with too MUCH equity instead of too little,even with the heloc maxed out (line was cut over a year ago)--- this little house on a 50x100 lot in another part of the country would be worth a fraction of what it is here.

[discouraged]

Exactly - I would not trust Zillow, that's for sure. Don't know who runs that outfit, but way, way out of line with my property.

[tcreegan]

Hi all, Hi keepsmiling,

You need a 'walk through' appraiser, someone who looks at the furnace, plumbing, electrical, roof, paint, etc before comparing the local market. (a lot of insurance companies use this type of appraisal)

Another way to do this is to get a local contractor to give an estimate on what it would take to bring everything up to the condition of the nearby homes used for the comp, then knock this amout off the top.

Good luck to you with this,

Tom in Colo