Lenders may hold up home closings in flooded areas

By JOANNE CLEAVER - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel MILWAUKEE -- Sharon Stehmeier has been a real estate broker for 38 years, and has never had a flood derail a closing. Yet. Home loan lenders in some parts of the Midwest are starting to enact their natural disaster procedures, which typically affect any house in a federal disaster area that is in the process of being sold. Buyers with pending contracts will likely have to have appraisers take a second look at the houses before lenders will sign off on the loans, lenders in an affected area said. The appraisers will be looking for flood damage that could affect the value or salability of the houses. So far, only one of Stehmeier's pending sales fell in that category. A RE/MAX Realty 100 agent based in Greenfield, Wis., she specializes close-in Milwaukee suburbs hard hit by floods... [read full story]