Home remodel

[Jerksticks]

I'm a general contractor and can answer any questions anybody has, especially how to maximize your budgets with your MEP subcontractors- that's where prices can escalate if you're not careful. Feel free to PM me to check out any info the subs are feeding you thay may sound dicey. Be happy to talk you through it. Planning, cleanliness & order of operations are key. All plumbing, electrical & hvac rough-ins should only take 1 day of labor, EVER. Keep that cost down.

[iamshack]

I'm a general contractor and can answer any questions anybody has, especially how to maximize your budgets with your MEP subcontractors- that's where prices can escalate if you're not careful. Feel free to PM me to check out any info the subs are feeding you thay may sound dicey. Be happy to talk you through it. Planning, cleanliness & order of operations are key. All plumbing, electrical & hvac rough-ins should only take 1 day of labor, EVER. Keep that cost down.

Ok, question for you....my flooring guys realized yesterday morning that the exterior door to the laundry room will no longer swing inwards, because the height of the new flooring apparently is slightly higher than the previous flooring.

 

Is this something the flooring contractor is usually on the hook for, or is this something the homeowner has to fix?

 

The door itself is your garden variety 6-panel door with steel exterior. It seems like cutting it down a bit would be messy. But assuming this door is standard size, I would have to order a custom door, which is going to cost me upwards of $700-800. This is really not something I have any desire to dump more money into...

[iamshack]

Floors are done! Making some real progress now.

 

Painting tomorrow, then we wait for countertops. Then backsplash, the electrical trim work, then appliances, then final cabinet work.

 

Two weeks and counting...

[Jerksticks]

Ok, question for you....my flooring guys realized yesterday morning that the exterior door to the laundry room will no longer swing inwards, because the height of the new flooring apparently is slightly higher than the previous flooring.

 

Is this something the flooring contractor is usually on the hook for, or is this something the homeowner has to fix?

 

The door itself is your garden variety 6-panel door with steel exterior. It seems like cutting it down a bit would be messy. But assuming this door is standard size, I would have to order a custom door, which is going to cost me upwards of $700-800. This is really not something I have any desire to dump more money into...

Jam,

 

How much more space do you need? One thing you can do is pop off the door casings and see if you can raise the whole door jamb up some. Chances are there may be around a 1/4-1/2" of shim room you could grab. Sometimes even more. Sometimes none, but usually something. You can always plane the top of the jamb if it's wood to grab another 1/8". Popping off a head casing is a simple way to investigate.

 

I feel ya though, woulda been nice if he spoke up before

[iamshack]

Jam,

 

How much more space do you need? One thing you can do is pop off the door casings and see if you can raise the whole door jamb up some. Chances are there may be around a 1/4-1/2" of shim room you could grab. Sometimes even more. Sometimes none, but usually something. You can always plane the top of the jamb if it's wood to grab another 1/8". Popping off a head casing is a simple way to investigate.

 

I feel ya though, woulda been nice if he spoke up before

Thanks! I will investigate...

[Jenksismyhero]

Has anyone gotten an appraisal before? I want to get my placed appraised. We did some finishing work in our basement and didn't get any permits, I wonder if the appraisal will somehow note that. The place was a "partially finished" basement when we bought it, and that's basically the same now, though we did run some new electrical.

[StrangeSox]

Yes, we did a couple of years ago as part of refinancing our mortgage. They won't care about permits.

[Jenksismyhero]

Yes, we did a couple of years ago as part of refinancing our mortgage. They won't care about permits.

 

How did you go about finding one? Through the lender? I want to stop paying our PMI insurance, but it's still going to take another year or more. Our place hasn't been appraised since we bought it (5 years) and i'm confident it's going to appraise for a lot more. It'd be worth the 3-400 bucks to get it done.

[StrangeSox]

How did you go about finding one? Through the lender? I want to stop paying our PMI insurance, but it's still going to take another year or more. Our place hasn't been appraised since we bought it (5 years) and i'm confident it's going to appraise for a lot more. It'd be worth the 3-400 bucks to get it done.

 

A surveyor? I think I just googled someone. I was just finding my plat of survey last night, so I can tell you that it was Nekola Survey. They did a good job (as far as I know), price was around $350. The lender can probably recommend you one as well.

 

That's why we did the refinancing, too.

 

Word of advice to anyone looking at loans in the future, FHA loans had their rules changed this year. You pay an upfront premium (something like 1.5% of the loan) and then you pay PMI every year forever regardless of loan-to-value. We're going with a conventional loan on our new place.

 

edit: if you mean appraiser, yeah, the lender had someone they used.

 

edit2: don't know what I was thinking, you don't need a survey for a refinance.

Edited November 12, 2015 by StrangeSox

[Jenksismyhero]

A surveyor? I think I just googled someone. I was just finding my plat of survey last night, so I can tell you that it was Nekola Survey. They did a good job (as far as I know), price was around $350. The lender can probably recommend you one as well.

 

That's why we did the refinancing, too.

 

Word of advice to anyone looking at loans in the future, FHA loans had their rules changed this year. You pay an upfront premium (something like 1.5% of the loan) and then you pay PMI every year forever regardless of loan-to-value. We're going with a conventional loan on our new place.

 

edit: if you mean appraiser, yeah, the lender had someone they used.

 

Yeah I need an appraiser, someone to tell the bank the value has gone up and we're beyond that 20% mark.

[StrangeSox]

Yeah I need an appraiser, someone to tell the bank the value has gone up and we're beyond that 20% mark.

If you're trying to tell your current lender to remove the PMI, I'm not sure how that'd work. We refinanced to both take advantage of lower rates and to get rid of PMI, so the new lender was eager to help us along.

[LittleHurt05]

I've learned that when a lender schedules an appraisal, it tends to appraise for the exact value they are looking for. Funny how that works.

[southsider2k5]

I've learned that when a lender schedules an appraisal, it tends to appraise for the exact value they are looking for. Funny how that works.

 

Yeah, that hasn't changed at all since the bubble burst.

[Jenksismyhero]

If you're trying to tell your current lender to remove the PMI, I'm not sure how that'd work. We refinanced to both take advantage of lower rates and to get rid of PMI, so the new lender was eager to help us along.

 

I was going to look into that too. We refinanced almost 3 years ago and got a 3.75% rate. Wonder if they've improved since then.

[StrangeSox]

I was going to look into that too. We refinanced almost 3 years ago and got a 3.75% rate. Wonder if they've improved since then.

No, they're creeping up slightly in anticipation of the fed raising rates soon. We're getting quoted around 4.1% for a 30 year fixed right now.

[iamshack]

Yeah I need an appraiser, someone to tell the bank the value has gone up and we're beyond that 20% mark.

1) If your sole purpose is to remove the PMI, contact your mortgage lender and explain this. They will explain to you what the process is for doing so. They will only use certain appraisals, so don't go get one on your own; ask them how the process works and follow it. Generally, if you agree to refinance your loan (and pay them closing costs) the process is more forgiving than if you simply want to remove the PMI. They are crooks.

 

2) If you'd like to refinance and take some cash out, sometimes the lender will actually pay for the appraisal themselves. We did this for our kitchen remodel. We went to US Bank, and they paid for not one, but two appraisals.

 

They will ask you what renovations you have done since you bought the house. Make a list of anything you have done and give it to them when they arrive. You can also provide them comps, although they won't necessarily consider them.

[Chisoxfn]

Yeah, that hasn't changed at all since the bubble burst.

Now the appraisal process is entirely different. If I recall, banks don't even know who is going to get the appraisal. Used to be you could really influence process. Might still happen a bit but it is more of a lottery at this point. Much more segregated then previously and in our area it is actually very common that appraisals come back failing (due to some skyrocketing prices over the past 1-2 years).

[Chisoxfn]

1) If your sole purpose is to remove the PMI, contact your mortgage lender and explain this. They will explain to you what the process is for doing so. They will only use certain appraisals, so don't go get one on your own; ask them how the process works and follow it. Generally, if you agree to refinance your loan (and pay them closing costs) the process is more forgiving than if you simply want to remove the PMI. They are crooks.

 

2) If you'd like to refinance and take some cash out, sometimes the lender will actually pay for the appraisal themselves. We did this for our kitchen remodel. We went to US Bank, and they paid for not one, but two appraisals.

 

They will ask you what renovations you have done since you bought the house. Make a list of anything you have done and give it to them when they arrive. You can also provide them comps, although they won't necessarily consider them.

Yes...this, if you are going to do it with your bank, you need to go through their process (and just pay whomever they would use anyway). If you go with someone else, the lender is still going to have to do an appraisal and will not rely on yours. Basically put, just paying for your own appraisal is pretty worthless (unless you just generally want to know what the value of your house is for some reason or are trying to at least push something along). Not like it used to be. Unless somehow laws in California around appraisals differ from Illinois (could be...hell if I know...but I thought all lenders went to this standard / were required after the housing mess).

[iamshack]

Yes...this, if you are going to do it with your bank, you need to go through their process (and just pay whomever they would use anyway). If you go with someone else, the lender is still going to have to do an appraisal and will not rely on yours. Basically put, just paying for your own appraisal is pretty worthless (unless you just generally want to know what the value of your house is for some reason or are trying to at least push something along). Not like it used to be. Unless somehow laws in California around appraisals differ from Illinois (could be...hell if I know...but I thought all lenders went to this standard / were required after the housing mess).

US Bank actually owns their own appraisal companies now.

 

Interesting.

[Jenksismyhero]

Yeah I was trying to avoid going through our mortgage lender for that exact reason. Why would they want to appraise the house for more, resulting in them getting less money from me each month?

[iamshack]

Yeah I was trying to avoid going through our mortgage lender for that exact reason. Why would they want to appraise the house for more, resulting in them getting less money from me each month?

Are you willing to go through a different lender and refinance?

[Jenksismyhero]

Are you willing to go through a different lender and refinance?

 

Eh. I'm at a good rate so probably not.

[iamshack]

Eh. I'm at a good rate so probably not.

We gave up about a quarter point but refinanced from 30 to 20 years and ditched the PMI, so we figured what the heck.

[StrangeSox]

Does the lender even make money off of PMI? I'd imagine that's going to some 3rd party insurer.

[Chisoxfn]

Does the lender even make money off of PMI? I'd imagine that's going to some 3rd party insurer.

I don't know if they pocket any of the cost, but the PMI ultimately gets insured by a 3rd party insurer. AIG and Genworth are two large insurers who have a big Mortgage Insurance business.