Thanks for your input... it makes me feel better. I should clarify... I am hoping not to sell the house.

The bank appraiser value is where my future hinges. I realize the appraisal won't necessarily be the same as the realtor, but I am hoping it will be close. If the bank appraiser comes up with a figure close to what the realtor said, I might possibly have a way out of this. If the Realtor was way off, way too high, then its lost. If the realtor was accurate but the appraiser doesn't agree I am also screwed. I've read that about 50% of the time the appraisal value is less than the resale value. Having some confidence that the resale value is what was quoted gives me a little more hope to get by on until the bank appraisal is finished.

Here's my other area of doubt... so OK, property values have "skyrocketed" recently... but what does "skyrocket" mean. Is it at all possible that the value of my house has nearly doubled in six years? That's what really took me back. Tonight I was looking over the stuff the realtor left me regarding other houses in the area that she researched. They do look like she gave me the correct range. It is hard to say for sure because all of the houses are different styles here... mine is the only split-level in the area. But based on number of rooms and features, looks pretty good to me.

ihopeihopeihopeihopeihopeihopeihope

Remember when you were young and used to put a large button on a loop of string, looping the string through two holes... then you'd stretch the string out between your two hands over your fingers, sort of spin it to "wind it up" and then by pulling the twisted string taught and then loosening it, the button would spin in one direction, then the other, back and forth??? Sort of like a sideways yoyolike thing? The internal system consisting of my esophogus, stomach, and large intestine is doing a very fine recreation of that toy inside my body this weekend. I didn't even realize that the stomach was free to spin around inside my gut, but it seems that is so.

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--http://www.idexter.com