I've noticed the same thing lately. When I refinanced, the appraiser barely glanced at my custom shelving but spent ages checking out the new insulati...

Had a similar issue myself when refinancing last year. The lender's estimate for taxes was way off, and I ended up owing more than I expected at year-...

Yeah, inspections aren't crystal balls, that's for sure. When I refinanced, I thought I'd covered every base—then bam, roof leak outta nowhere. I'd al...

I've definitely seen comps backfire too—had a neighbor who thought using the house next door would help, but turns out their place had some major upgr...

Yeah, I ran into something similar when refinancing a couple years back. First appraisal came in pretty disappointing—felt like they barely glanced at...

Totally agree about chatting with other borrowers—saved me some grief too. Another thing I'd suggest is getting your docs organized early. I made a si...