Hello, my name is Bre Powers and I am a real estate agent in Asheville Nc. I started working with a dear friend a while back to help her find a home for her family of 5, which we came SUPER close to achieving till we hit a huge road bump...aka the dreaded USDA appraiser, and we need some help to make this dream come true.

I am going to try and explain this in as few words as possible but this family should have been closing on their home last week so they could be in for the holiday and three days before closing we were told they could not close without making about $10,000 worth of repairs. We are trying to get the cost down by doing some of the work but parts are beyond our scope.

Here is the full story of how we got here....

We had a difficult time even finding a home that worked for this family because of their need for 4 bedrooms, remaining close to kids' schools/parents jobs and the budget we were working in. Most of the homes we saw were barely habitable until we came across this beauty. They are using a certain type of loan called a USDA loan which is backed by the government and has a strict appraisal process. I prepped them that the home would need repairs to qualify in which the appraiser would tell us.

The appraiser did his appraisal on November 21 and told us two somewhat easy repairs that needed to be done in order to close which we completed within a few days and also was paid for by the buyers. Our closing day was set for December 15th...Fast forward to December 12th and we get an email from the appraiser stating that he went to inspect the repairs and found 19 more items to repair.

This has shocked everyone involved. Between the lenders, agents and attorneys working for this family, no one has ever heard of an appraiser doing this on their second visit and only days before closing. This has put the family in an extremely tough financial situation and if they cannot fulfill this loan, not only are they out of a home but they will have lost thousands of $$$ that have gone into this deal. The sellers have been nice to extend this contract but we need help to cover the cost of these repairs and to give this family a home, maybe not for the holiday, but for the new year. Please consider donating if you have anything to spare this holiday season.