Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Indiana

Help, please. I am about to lose my home. Ok, so this is a long story. About a year ago a friend and I entered into a contract agreement on a home. The goal was to enter the contract agreement and then get a loan on the home which would pay everyone who helped us back and pay off the owner, then we would have a regular mortgage on the home. The property is unique. It is on the register of historic places. It has 22 rooms, and yes it needs repairs, but the rich history was something we were anxious to save. So we attempted to go through a mortgage broker. After 6 mos of back and forth we had an appraisal done which stated the value of the home was 75000. The reason for this was that (from the way it was explained to us) they were unable to compare the property to anything that had sold in the area (a town of 700 people) so they judged the property the best they could. However, we passed FHA standards and we were told we were good to go. Please bear in mind that credit score is 720. It was the day before we were suppose to be closing when we were sent an email stating that "due to the unique properties of the real estate they would be unable to lend". From our understanding it was because they were unable to obtain a "proper" appraisal. We have jumped through hoops ever since. My question is how does one obtain a proper appraisal when there is no comparable property to have sold within the last year. We are not asking for a lot of money, but maintaining the home and keeping up with the contracted payments are killing us. One bank said that if the property was in our name they could refinance it. So the seller did a quit title and signed the property over. Then we were informed that they were unable to loan until the property had been in our names for 6 mos. It has now been 6 mos. In order to pay everyone back and pay off the contract we need $45,000 . We can not get that again, without a proper appraisal. Is there anything we can do? Is there a rule for unique properties or a waiver or closest appraisal that we can use instead of the regular appraisal? I really need help. We are at our wits end and feel like we are being treated unfairly. We have paid over $30,000 toward this property thanks to the help of friends and family. But we are going to end up losing all of the money if we can not find a way to close on a loan. Thank you for your time.


Asked on 3/25/13, 10:24 am

2 Answer from Attorneys
Jay Rigdon Rockhill Pinnick LLP

It is not likely a question of proper appraisal. It is more likely a question of it being hard to find a potential buyer for a large property in a small community if you should not pay the loan. This is more of a financial question than a legal one

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Answered on 3/25/13, 2:46 pm


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