You can bank on that

November 23, 2010


Our mortgage broker, Paul, God love him, is trying his darndest to eliminate our need for mortgage insurance at the moment, with limited success.  Trouble is, Cranbourne North is such a new suburb that there's very few previous sales for the experts to base their valuations on.  The system is flawed, but really, we just have to work within their guidelines rather than completely stressing ourselves out.  Paul has contacted Carlisle and asked them to provide him with data on recent sales in the area - as in the value of builds in progress in our estate, in the hope of convincing our bank to value our build to at least its cost to us.  I'm a little disappointed to say that they weren't forthcoming with this info, and Paul has had to really push the point.  They actually questioned what it had to do with them. Hmmm.  Mind you, we have just lost our fantastic customer service chicky, and the new one.... we'll just wait and see before passing judgment.
Anyway - I digress.  If Paul can bump the value up a little, and in turn decrease the mortgage insurance payable, we'll release the pause button and start on the build.  Besides, when we then sell our current house and the equity is released, we can start our landscaping, pool, window coverings without having to re-borrow!  I know - naughty.  But we just wanna get in there already...

4 comments :: thanks for sharing!:

Debra said...

Good Luck....who is your new CLE we have 'J', very switched on and with a SS new to Carlisle (a nice guy) we are thankful for her input.

Raelene said...

Hey there Deb - our CLE is "L". Doesn't know the opposite of no so far. Can we change our down pipe colour = no. Can we have a narrower window on the garage = no. Can we challenge the developer on the definition of a double garage = no. Do you have an idea of when our build will begin = no. Ohhh-kaaaaaaay!

Debra said...

Hmmmmm!! Until developer approval is obtained (how does Carlisle know you can't have a narrow window?)...and before production drawings are drafted you should have options to ensure any changes all co-ordinate, if that maks sense? I think our private inspection ruffeld their feathers. Hadn't heard anything so called SS. He just received report and was surprised - surprised we did an inspection or surprised at the report???? not sure. Either way that is our choice. He seemed annoyed at having to reschedule plastering, so be it. Must be the heat!!!

Drew and Maya said...

Hi Guys, sorry to hear about your bank/valuer holding things up. It sounds like the banks customer service in particular has been really ordinary. Being a Bank Manager myself and currently building my own home, I just recently dealt with both sides of this problem. Our home & land valued $50K under the build cost and while it didn't mean we had to pay mortgage insurance, we had to throw in extra cash.

On the banks side, their decisions are driven by their credit/risk policy and the valuer that completes the "as if complete" valuation. Although some banks (particularly the Big 4's) policy in relation to valuations are pretty rigid, there are some things that you can do to try and get things moving -
1) Get yourself a copy of a list of sales in the last 6 months from your local area. The valuers will generally be restricted to use these as comparable sales. You can buy a sales report on a particular radius from you build location from RPDATA. By viewing "local sales" you will get a sense of what the market is paying for houses in your estate. Be sure to also look a prices paid in more established new estates as well. You can generally use this information to base a request for a second valuation.
2) If your RPDATA comparison indicates that they got the value wrong, some banks allow you to request a 2nd valuation (at your cost) and then split the difference between the two valuations. This generally requires approval from the Banks credit analyst to do this (and accept it). The risk with this is that the second valuation either comes back with a lower amount or is not a sufficient difference in valuation amount to be worthwhile. A new valuation to the banks standards should cost between $210 and $500
3) The only other choice is to move banks. Again, the risk is that the new bank still comes bank with the same value, but at least you will know this up front before you decide to take the new loan with them.

Anyway, hope this helps :)

Drew

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