I was watching Seinfeld last night and was remembering one of the greatest episodes, in my opinion, of all time – the Soup Nazi episode. Remember when George and Ellen stayed in line forever and then managed to tick off the guy that was selling soup?

So, what does that have to do with Pasadena home loans? Well… not much really except for the fact that lenders that would give mortgages to anyone who breathed before are refusing to play nice with good, honest consumers who want to buy a Pasadena home or refinance their home.

I had a conversation last night with a Pasadena condo owner who is trying to refinance her home. She purchased her condo 2 years ago with 20% down and has made each and every payment – never a late pay – has excellent credit history and is getting a run around from her lender.

She saw the unprcedented drop in interest rates a couple of weeks ago and wanted to take an opportunity to refinance and get the lower Pasadena mortgage rate.

She called a lender, completed an application and then waited for the appraiser to do his job. The appraiser finally made it to her Pasadena condo and came back with an appraised value that is at least $50,000 below the market value of the property.

This Pasadena home owner was shocked. She saw that I was marketing one of my seller’s property in the same condo building and called to find out if her condo truly lost that much in value. The answer is absolutely NOT!

Looking at the Pasadena real estate statistics and the five year review of property values in Pasadena, as well as, specific sales in the condominium complex, it was clear that the appraiser either didn’t pull the appropriate comparables, didn’t do his job or was following the “bank nazi” routine of “NO LOAN FOR YOU!”

So, I’ve armed her with a couple of comparable condo sales in her building to give to the appraiser and also provided her with names and numbers of two outstanding Pasadena mortgage lenders that I work with to help should the “Loan Nazi” maintain their position.

For those of you that want a quick reminder of the Soup Nazi greatest moments take a look below:

And, for the lenders and appraisers that are currently reading this, let’s get some of our common sense back.