We went with a local credit union bc we have had great experience with them in the past, and we have good hx with them (2 paid off car loans, and a refinanced mortgage on our current house). In fact, when they appraised (different appraiser though) our current house last year, they assessed it at $25K higher than we paid 2 yrs prior to buy it. We have put a few improvements in, but no where near that amt. We did appeal the initial appraisal bc the comps they used we felt were not even close to our new build. AND they did not do ANY comparisons to new builds. There is actually a new build right around the corner from us, but he is using private funds and insurance money, as his previous house burned down. So even though he is building upwards of a 750K home (much higher than our proposal), they did not take that into consideration. Most of the recently solds were on less than 1/2 acre in a tract, whereas ours is 2 full wooded acres in a substantially more upscale "development." (Not really a true development, but a large area that used to be undeveloped and farm land that is slowly being parcelled off and built, all by various contractors. None of the comps had higher than standard 8ft ceilings. None had wood stained trim or upgraded windows. All were vinyl siding. None had any built-ins....we have several throughout. Ours has increased insulation (closed cell foam and blown in versus mainly fiberglass), high quality windows, 2x6 construction, stone around the entire foundation, etc. I found several recent sales in the $140/sq ft range but they said they "comped" the same, and really did not seem to take the price per square footage into consideration. They only gave us $17/sq foot for our 1590 sq ft basement, even though we pointed out that we were roughing that in now and finishing it (probably ourselves) within the year to include a media room and in-law suite. I was also very confused by several adjustments they made to the comps prices. For instances adding $2200 to the value of one bc it was on a 0.9 acre tract, when ours is 2 acres. ADDING $32000 to the same one bc it was 7 years old and not new?? Adding $44,650 to it bc it was 3 bed, 2.5 baths and 30000sq ft where ours is 5bes 4 baths and 3893 sq ft. Very confusing. We did find one comp that is still for sale in a price range close to our cost to build (actually a bit higher) and similar in upgrades, etc they had this response: "The above listing is a perfect example of an atypical over improvement for the area. The marketability is greatly affected. Price is discounted, marketing time is abnormal." The house has only been on the market for 30 days, so not sure how that is abnormal. Yes, the price is about $100K higher than the assessed price, but I thought the assessed price was very low for the upgrades they had done, and wonder if they did it on the "down-low" - i.e. not pulling permits, etc and never had it reassessed. While the real estate market IS slow here (where is it not) there are still a fair amt of sales, and definitely NO WHERE near 50% of them being bank owned or short sales. Here is a direct quote from the appraiser in response to our appeal with higher comps and pointing out all of our upgrades: "The proposed construction is an over improvement for the area (super adequacy). It suffers from regression being the most expensive home in an area without a high degree of conformity to support the value. The cost approach may support the construction price, however due to the area and lack of supporting sales, the sales comparison approach will not support the construction cost." The bank liason actually seemed quite surprised with the initial appraisal AND appeal. He also said due to industry regulations, they are no longer even allowed to order a 2nd appraisal. I think part of the issue (why we are building in the first place) is that we have such specific needs and have found NOTHING existing that would satisfy those. We have NO plans of selling this house any time in the near (and by that I mean at least 15-20 years) future. But of course, the bank doesn't care about that. So, we are looking into how we can redesign our dream plans into a cheaper design. I will definitely post the plans here for input. I have posted them piecemeal up until now, but never the entire project. The original design had a steep A frame roof which we knew was a large chunk of the cost, so simply redesigning that would help, though not $100K of help. We are also going to sit down with our builder and find out what he suggests. Thanks for your input so far.

Steve, Are you maxing out on your HELOC, or is there more available on it? I assume that it's based on the value of your home. If the value of your home increases, perhaps you can arrange some increase in limit. Which might not be adviseable, as a number of knowledgeable analysts believe that current house prices in at least several areas of the U.S. are much too high - some are using the term, "bubble". Could a rather drastic revision in your area be in the cards? If it decreases, no doubt your lender will be reducing the maximum that you can draw. Which will quite likely include that, should your maximum reduce to below what you've drawn, the lender will want to see some immediate money. You haven't said anything about whether, in the ordinary course of things, you are planning to have the "credit" card balance paid off by the deadline on the 0% rate. Or whether, going into emergency saving mode, you could manage to do so - or about how willing you (and your family?) might be to alter your current lifestyle so drastically. I assume that the (currently non-existent) interest on the "credit" card debt isn't deductible. What are the chances that you could roll the credit card debt into another 0% program sometime between now and the deadline? I assume also that you have committed to adding not another cent to that balance owing between now and then. I feel rather uncomfortable with your suggestion that you are looking at " ... throwing around ... " what appears to many of us a substantial amount of money, namely $5,000. Do you frequently " ... throw (money) around ... "? Not that that is any of my business, whatsoevr. But for a number of years as a personal financial advisor I sought to convince my clients to use money wisely - making it work for them, rather than someone else. Just my $0.02. ole joyful

Things really are crazy now for sure- I am the one who posted before out my HELOC getting frozen right in the middle of my major house renovation. I decided to contact another bank for a new HELOC, and at the same time went down the path with my existing bank providing a new appraisel. Before we did our renovation, we had two realtors come to our home to advise us on what houses were selling for in like size, condition to ours, and what they thought the renovation might add. They both replied with a number that was very close to each other, assuming that things do not change too much (we live in a very desirable part of town, that did not get the huge run up on prices and no big drops lately). Then, the appraisor gave us another number, about 20% lower than the realtors but high enough to continue our HELOC if our original bank actually wants to do so. Then, the new bank denied us a HELOC, stating that their compturized valuation came in too low- It was so low it was laughable- it was almost half lower than our actual appraisel. Now, I understand being conservative, but that is ridiculous. I almost wonder it they had the wrong house. As by chance, on the same day the county sent us our new assessment, which went up by 10% of course. At this point, our contractor has to be paid and the original bank is taking forever to review our new appraisel and I am about done with the whole thing. We are very fortunate in that I am going to be able to sell enough stock to cover what we owe, but it was not what I planned when I started this whole thing, and I hate putting so much more cash into the house. Even with the HELOC, we would have been at 80% LTV, and now we will be more like 60%. We don't plan to sell for at least 10 years, so at least I can enjoy my investment :)

cmarlin20,why is it fortunate you closed your heloc's? I don't understand...If my bank reduced my heloc,it really wouldn't phase me at all, as i have never used it Really, the only reason I think it is fortunate that I closed it then is because now that many have been lowered, I'm glad I wasn't counting on it for any reason. My first one was low for several years. I got it to use as a down to buy another house, when I sold it and moved back to my original home, I paid it off. Now that I've sold another property I have cash so I doubt I'd need a HELOC anytime soon. As Dave said, I like having them... just in case. They never cost me anything to get, they are good insurance. My $200k HELOC was at the limit the whole time I had it, so they wouldn't reduce my "unused amount". It was great until the end, then the rate went up quite a bit. But it gave me cash to make a very good property investment. I agree with Dave, credit used wisely is a good thing.