Appraisal Looming Help!

[Curtis H.]

Well it's about that time...

Some of you have seen my other posts about my primary I got Sub2 and am going to finally refinance after 2 and a half years and take it out of the seller's name and into mine. The lender has ordered the appraisal and I have some questions...

1) If I didn't touch a thing in the house I could still qualify for the refinance being lower than 80% LTV. So I'm good there. However, my bigger concern is the HELOC. Do they normally send an appraiser when you apply for a HELOC? If these are two separate appraisals then I won't worry so much about the one for the refinance.

2) If this appraisal does matter for the sake of the HELOC, what things help an appraisal the most? It's mostly cosmetic that needs to be done. Stucco patching, painting exterior, new garage door, kitchen cabinets are a mess, couple rooms need to be painted.

Any help is appreciated!