So BoA took over my mortgage and were more than willing to try to help me refi if I paid $450 to start the process and get an appraisal. Initial estimates for rates would be that I could just straight refin and come in 1.75% less than what I have now. I was happy!

Appraiser comes and 2 weeks go by I finally get the results. Results? My house is worth $12k less than I owe and some $30k less than what I paid for it. BoA wants the $12k plus closing to refi. DOH :(

But, I start looking at the appraisal and notice some things are odd. Like, a bed room is missing, appliances are not listed and I just installed a new furnace and A/C and redid my kitchen, front walk, etc. None of this is there. He said he couldn't find comparable homes for sale in my area so he had to go over 5miles out to find them. Well the neighborhood he chose for houses listed is old and they are no where near as big as mine. Ok WTF. Then I go to ripoff.dot and read this
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Landsafe-Appraisal-Services-Countrywide/Mortgage-Companies/Landsafe-Appraisal-Services-C-C424E.htm (http://www.ripoffreport.com/Landsafe-Appraisal-Services-Countrywide/Mortgage-Companies/Landsafe-Appraisal-Services-C-C424E.htm)

There is one smaller home in my sub that is up for a sheriff sale and is listed $20k less than mine but it is also smaller. I am at a loss as to what to do. I'm tired of being that guy who pays my mortgage on time every month and makes an extra payment each year and yet I can't seem to catch a break. BoA says the Obama programs are only for people who have crazy high interest rates and mine is only 6.25%, now they are telling me they can only do 6%, up from 5% when I started this bullshit a month ago. I'm so over getting fucked :( Any advice?

I've having similar problems. My house was previously foreclosed so I bought it from a bank in Feb '08 for $317,000 and it was appraised for $385,000. I put 10% down and got a rate of 6.25% back then. However, I've been paying PMI of about $200 / month since I have more than 80% loan to value. Recently I figured I must have 20% ownership in the house since all the equity I had buying it and almost 2 years of payments, so trying to refinance ... and now they say my income level doesn't qualify me for the house. My appraisal came back just $7,000 short of where it needed to be and that, combined with my new car purchase, and the purchase of some gear for my business last year (which was a business expense, and thus made my income on paper seem low - despite it being higher than it was in 2007 which got me qualified for the house in the first place) ... apparently I can't afford the house at a cheaper cost per month, yet somehow I can afford the house at the $220 higher price tag.

If you were getting a new mortgage they'd bend over backwards to help you out, but since you are trying to arrange to pay less than you do now - they couldn't give a fuck.

If you were getting a new mortgage they'd bend over backwards to help you out, but since you are trying to arrange to pay less than you do now - they couldn't give a fuck.

Sounds like they just plain bend you over now.

So next question is.... if you are a first time buyer right now or just in the market for a house, what sort of rates are they giving people? Are they tinkering with the numbers to make up for defaults and lower appraisals? Are lenders upping the down payment amount or raising the interest rates?

I am so glad I am 5 years from completely owning my house, bye bye mortgage.

Do you have anything anchoring you to BoA? It can be a pain in the ass to change lenders, but it's worth it if you're looking at saving a point or more on the loan.

If they won't treat you as good as a new customer, vote with your wallet and be someone else's new customer.

Nothing is holding me to them no but they are the only ones who even wanted to hear me when I mentioned refi. I've talked to a few other banks (granted most of them are big like BoA) and none even wanted to talk numbers. They all said well your rate is decent why you want to refi? And just in general didn't even want to talk to me.

I am considering challenging the appraisal since I think it's bullshit. My neighbors bought their house a year ago and paid $20k more than I did for mine and we have identical footprints, except I've done my upgrades listed above. To challenge the appraisal I have to write a letter noting the discrepancies and then find 3 comparable homes in my area with their listing and selling price. I would frankly be happy with just getting rid of PMI if I could but I don't know how to do that. If I did though it'd save me some about $200 a month.

Fild, look your house up on Zillow.com and see what that says and look at your neighbors and what they sold it for. If the appraisal is dramatically lower than Zillow, you can use that as a reference.

As for getting rid of PMI, whenever you have 20% equity in your house you can write your lender and have them cease PMI. So, with that appraisal, you need to owe less than 80% of the total worth of the house. If your house is appraised at $300,000 you need to owe less than $240,000.

feh :(
somedays I wished I would have just put down 20% rather than 10%

alas zillow has prices in my neighborhood all over the place and has my address wrong, when I pull up my addy it has me in a house smaller than mine on a different street. I hate zillow. but prices there are swinging 60-80k within my sub. it's bonkers.

My condo depreciated almost exactly what I had put down to start with. I'm not "underwater", but I feel like I'm just treading water now rather than making headway.