Despite the bank accepting my offer on one of the Parks at Cathedral townhouses, the loan was turned down during underwriting due to not enough recent comps (only 1 within the last year and just 3 total over the last 3 years).
Anyone else faced this problem? Is there any hope of breaking out of this cycle of no comps hindering sales, leading to fewer comps, and so on?
I'm going through the same issue. I'll be submitting my contract for a townhome at another site next week. Your deal would have been a comp for me.
gotta go with the cash.
Quote from: JFman00 on November 23, 2012, 10:01:34 AM
Despite the bank accepting my offer on one of the Parks at Cathedral townhouses, the loan was turned down during underwriting due to not enough recent comps (only 1 within the last year and just 3 total over the last 3 years).
What is your recourse now?
I think this is more of a townhouse/condo thing than a downtown thing. Townhouses and condos still seem to be toxic for lenders and it kinda makes sense.
I don't know if its a condo thing or not....same thing happened last year on a four-plex...only available comps were triplexes and duplexes which required the appraiser to adjust by that amount...a percentage that was outside the conventional loan limits. thus was turned down. Luckily VA loan was available for owner-occupied unit.
Doubt its a condo/townhouse thing. It appears to be a comps thing. It seems the lenders view it as less of a risk if you have several comps for the desired product.
Come to Springfield. Just a few more blocks, and lots of comps.
My site is in the heart of Springfield. It just happens to be a row house style live/work loft instead of a traditional single family frame house.
Quote from: Debbie Thompson on November 26, 2012, 08:32:39 PM
Come to Springfield. Just a few more blocks, and lots of comps.
We submitted comps from Springfield (1951 N Market in particular) but it was not sufficient for unknown reasons. As far as I know the closest comps in terms of the actual property were in Southside (too far away), while the closest comps in the neighborhood were in an entirely different market segment (Churchwell Lofts, Berkman Townhouses).
I will be out of the country for several months so will be essentially starting over. My dream property remains a 2-3 story mixed-use building. I'm inspired by my brother who bought one in the old downtown of a Detroit suburb, a decrepit $40k 6000sf 2 stories and a sub-level garage the ground level retail into a motorsport art gallery, and the top floor into a loft à la the $800k firehouse for sale down here. Doubtful I'll be able to find anything similar here.
Next on the list is something along the lines of a 2-story John Gorrie or Churchwell except townhouse style (HOA is just too much to afford). I'm getting pessimistic on being able to find something both suitable and in my price range before I rotate out of here.
The condo problem in financing has been the 50% owner-occupancy ratio. As soon as a complex falls below, good luck trying to buy in anything besides cash. In townhouses it's comps. Outside of the Southside there are just so few of them.
Lake, are you getting your project going again? I was looking at it the other day while I was at Kool Beans and thinking about how great it would be to have those fully built out.
I'm looking at getting the second built out and possibly moving into it.