New to Investing, Having Trouble With a Refinance

[Jerri Myers]

We purchased a house to fix and flip in Texas. We used a hard money lender and were not able to sell within our allotted time frame. So we decided to refinance and rent out the property. It is currently rented and we have excellent tenants.

We have run into several glitches during our refinance process. Our first issue was that we hadn't been on title for 6 mo (apparently a fannie mae guideline). At this point we have overcome that hurdle. The second obstacle is that they will only lend 65% LTV (even going thru a credit union). We have gone thru 2 different financial institutions, paid for 2 appraisals, and are still not getting the results we want.

The first appraisal was for $115,000 on 10/25 and the second appraisal was for $105,000 on 12/30. I don't understand why such a large difference. Housing values in the area are going up and I reviewed the info with my realtor. We appealed the second appraisal with no success. The finance company won't use the first appraisal since they didn't order it.

We are under a major time crunch at this point. We need to be able to use the higher appraisal and need a company to do at least 75% LTV.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Jerri