My appraisal came in 43K under expected Value. what should I do

[Jermyn Brown]

I bought a house in Detroit for 31K I rehab the home for 25k looking to do the BRRRR Method I had a hard money lender that I deal with set up but their minimum is 75K. When I went to refinance the home the appraisal came back at 32K. What can I do and how do I prevent this from happening agin in the future? please help

[Travis Biziorek]

OK, so lots to unpack here. 

First, you can't choose your own appraiser. This is (partly) what cause the housing bubble. If I can choose my appraiser, why not hire my buddy, cousin, sister, etc. and have them juice the appraised value for me? I believe there are laws against this, and the lender has to follow a process. 

You should have received the appraisal report showing you exactly what comps they used. And here's the thing, if there are no comps pointing to the value you expected it won't matter how much money you dumped into this house. So "preventing" this from happening again in the future is as easy as making sure you have the comps to support the investment. If you don't (and often you do not in Detroit), it shouldn't at all be a surprise why this didn't appraise for where you expected.

Lastly, it doesn't matter what you paid for a house. Maybe this house truly is worth $32k fixed up and you just made a bad purchase. I don't know because I don't know the address, the actual condition of the property now, etc. I'm happy to take a look and provide my opinion, but it's just that. My opinion doesn't do you any good in terms of changing the appraised value. But it might help you refine your strategy for future purchases.