3/3/20 Oh Yeah, Our House Was Appraised Again?

    I think this borders on criminal, not that anyone gives two shits, but while refinancing, everyone who you might want to refinance gets their very own appraisal.  We tried going through Loan Depot, they have our loan blah blah blah, we paid them $500 so they would get a third party appraisal firm to come and value our house.  Nevermind that the county taxes had a set price of $426,000.  Zillow had a price of something crazy like $480,000.  If anybody wants this house for $480,000, write me a check, I'll take it.
    The first valuation came in at $425,000.  $1000 less than what the county said, so whatever.  It laid down the groundwork for us to possibly borrow 80% of that or $340,000.  That seemed like plenty to pay the mortgage $289,000 plus maybe $30k in credit debt, they insisted on the solar panels, which is where we fell apart.  If this had been done quickly, I might have even folded and gone their way, I really want to convert to a fifteen year mortgage, but really, it took them 5 months to get from saying yes we can do this thing and you are our customer and we will treat you right, to well, it is your money, but we will tell you what you can do with it.
    Since they dragged their feet for so long, they had to pull another credit check and I guess that alerted other mortgage companies and while getting out of Academy two weeks ago, I accidentally picked up the phone and was bombarded by a quick talking sales person who again told me everything I wanted to hear, so here we are again, going through a second round attempt at refinancing.  This time, they are willing to give me $750 cash for going with them, it is supposed to pay for the appraisal and a little WAM money, but I know it will all just get folded in and mixed and lost amongst the other hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Apart from the $750, they also mentioned that the interest rates have been falling down for the last 4-5 months, so it was good that I failed to sign with Loan Depot.  They said they could give me the same deal but for $200 less a month on my mortgage, and my interest rate would be like 2.75%.
    The first time our house was appraised I was a nervous wreck, I cleaned for a week ahead of them coming, and tried decluttering as much as I could.  This time around, after hearing so many "it doesn't matter", and having only like a day and a half advance warning, I did not get a chance to clean.  Wife happened to be here the night before and she cleaned a little, but nothing like we did the first time.
    I guess we will see if they are being truthful or lying when we see the new valuation.  But really, shouldn't one be good for like a year?  You get one done from some third party company and you can fish that around to the mortgage companies.  Paying $500 to every company you talk to just sounds like a setup to getting scammed.