What would we do if we couldn't get enough money to pay for the motorhome?
Fortunately we didn't have to hunt up an appraiser. Either Sue Black-Garland of the INVIS Financial Group or the bank (we're not sure which) arranged for the appraiser, Brian Sikora of Elford Appraisal & Consulting Services, Ltd. (Phone 403-230-4107). We merely had to call Brian and make an appointment to have him drop by to look the place over.
Several years ago the City of Calgary revised its property tax system. Now, taxes are computed on the fair market value of the property as of July 1 of every year, as opposed to some fictitious system based on previous tax assessments, statutory values or prorated values. This automatically means that the City must stay abreast of real estate trends and market values in each neighbourhood in the City and update their database at least once a year. This also means that these appraisals must be fairly accurate to maintain some semblance of integrity and to reduce appeals and litigation in the courts as much as possible.
The City had assessed our home at CDN $170,500. Thus, while their system wasn't perfect, this gave us a pretty good idea for a ball park value for the property's worth.
As mentioned elsewhere, banks are generally unwilling to grant mortgages for more than 75% the appraised value of the property. Thus, based on the City's assessment, we could probably gain a mortgage for up to about CDN $128,000. We had asked for somewhat less than this, partly because we did not wish to be saddled with an overwhelming mortgage payment, partly because we didn't want to pay the extra interest, partly because we really didn't require that much.
The whole matter was complicated by the fact that the appraiser was obligated to submit his appraisal to the bank or the mortgage broker, not to us. Brian had explained that if the broker wished to supply us with a copy of the appraisal that was their business, but he could not. Thus, we had to wait for Sue to tell us the amount of the appraisal and supply us with a FAXed copy.
After Brian (Elford Associates) left we had to wait several days to find out the appraised value, and therefore the maximum amount of the mortgage. During that time there was some small stress in the Schultz manse. Would we be able to get enough money to pay for the motorhome? Would we have to scrape together every last penny of spare change to make the purchase? Would we be eating open-faced bean sandwiches for the rest of our lives in our luxury motorhome? At one point Marguerite stated quite flatly that she didn't expect the appraisal to be high enough to allow us to get the coach. "O ye of little faith!"
Finally, Stan got the call from Sue: The property had been appraised at CDN $177,000! More than enough by a comfortable margin!
Oh, by the way, the cost of the appraisal was CDN $214.
So now one more piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. We knew we could get the money required to purchase our retirement home on wheels. We still had a few problems, however:
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Copyright © 2003, Stanley A. Schultz and Marguerite J. Schultz.
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This page was initially created on 2003-November-09.
The last revision occurred on 2005-December-18.