Americas Home Grant

[Tom D]

Banks are forced to give grants in the lower priced area to be able to have branch offices. It's a forced action to help the poorer areas. It's a grant, not repayable. That is all you need to note. A gift from the lender or governnent. I never mentioned them. I guess you could comment under sale agreement analysis, it is not a conession.

 

[J Grant]

Banks are forced to give grants in the lower priced area to be able to have branch offices. It's a forced action to help the poorer areas. It's a grant, not repayable. That is all you need to note. A gift from the lender or governnent. I never mentioned them. I guess you could comment under sale agreement analysis, it is not a conession.

I never mention them if they exist since I have never had a lender or client mention it to me the way this client did to the OP appraiser.

 

[David S. Roberson]

It reminds me of the old Nehemiah bull****.

 

[Andee]

If your client asked for the language in your report, they have made it an "appraiser thing." You should ask, by the way, if there is an addendum or document that the lender is contributing $ to the closing costs under this program. (because if there is, then it is a concession.

First, this landed in may lap after the report was completed and they requested a revision for the address because the lender entered the address in incorrectly, with a second revision because they wanted to know why the value was much higher than the contract price. Well Mr Lender, I wasn't there when the buyer (tenant) and seller (owner) hammered out the agreement for the price of this duplex that the tenant will still occupy.

Second, I would think this should have been noted at the beginning, when the order came in, but it wasn't.

Lastly, they are requesting this to become something that the appraiser should add into the report, when in fact it has absolutely nothing to do with the appraisal at all and should not be an appraisal thing. Unless they want to disclose all the information for me to make an informed decision, I'm not going to take it at the Lenders word that this qualifies for some program I know nothing about. This would mean they are handing over their entire file with all the financials, credit reports, and the application, along with the regulations for this grant. I know how to underwrite a loan, I used to work in that sector of the industry, but I don't think the Lender is going to give that information to me.

To me this seems like one of those things that the Lender is saying, "Well, your mom transferred $5,000 into your account and now we need a gift letter because you will be using that for the closing costs." although it will not be used for the closing costs, it just happened to come in at the right time as a small inheritance from a grandparent, which that money was allocated for something else when the borrower found out about it. FYI...that last comment is true, my mother did that to us when we were in the process of buying our home after my step-grandmother passed, and those funds were used for a circular drive way, had nothing to do with the appraisal and therefore shouldn't have been disclosed in the appraisal.

 

[J Grant]

First, this landed in may lap after the report was completed and they requested a revision for the address because the lender entered the address in incorrectly, with a second revision because they wanted to know why the value was much higher than the contract price. Well Mr Lender, I wasn't there when the buyer (tenant) and seller (owner) hammered out the agreement for the price of this duplex that the tenant will still occupy.

Second, I would think this should have been noted at the beginning, when the order came in, but it wasn't.

Lastly, they are requesting this to become something that the appraiser should add into the report, when in fact it has absolutely nothing to do with the appraisal at all and should not be an appraisal thing. Unless they want to disclose all the information for me to make an informed decision, I'm not going to take it at the Lenders word that this qualifies for some program I know nothing about. This would mean they are handing over their entire file with all the financials, credit reports, and the application, along with the regulations for this grant. I know how to underwrite a loan, I used to work in that sector of the industry, but I don't think the Lender is going to give that information to me.

To me this seems like one of those things that the Lender is saying, "Well, your mom transferred $5,000 into your account and now we need a gift letter because you will be using that for the closing costs." although it will not be used for the closing costs, it just happened to come in at the right time as a small inheritance from a grandparent, which that money was allocated for something else when the borrower found out about it. FYI...that last comment is true, my mother did that to us when we were in the process of buying our home after my step-grandmother passed, and those funds were used for a circular drive way, had nothing to do with the appraisal and therefore shouldn't have been disclosed in the appraisal.

The client sounds like a PITA, and hopefully, they are worth it.

That said, Imo, you are making way too much of this - wrt the grant. Digging in your heels and refusal is the ticket to losing a client. They are not asking you to do anything illegal or shady. All they are asking you to do is disclose on the appraisal that the subject qualifies for the grant from X bank, and then you can CYI by stating that it was not listed as a concession on the contract.

Because your client asked it be disclosed, it became " an appraisal thing."

 

[Elliott]

I will attest that BofA loan processors are total morons. They screwed around for two months on a first mortgage and I ended up going with Better Mortgage and it sailed through in two weeks. I asked for the reason they didn't approve, which is required by law, and after I had supplied every document known to man, they said, "Oh, you didn't supply all the documents we requested." I always though it was weird how Moynihan came out of the Crisis as CEO. Total morons.

 

[Mile High Trout]

Ask the client to reword the request;

Appraiser to please enter this exact language into the appraisal report; The lender has informed the appraiser that this property qualifies for X program, and has asked the appraiser to include this language in the report. / Then you follow up and say; Appraiser is not an expert on X program's terms and/or limitations and can not verify this information, but trusts the lender is providing accurate information.

If the lender wants a certain sow, that's their business. Appraiser accepts it or not. Remember that sow is binding and can not be changed after the fact unless the appraiser agrees. Because ultimately the appraiser is the one in charge of SOW. You accept it or not. Lenders sometimes want or need to change sow along the way. That's fine, as long as this does not materially change your approach or work effort, but you should disclose in the report you have made the change.

Best solutions is always to copy exactly the request the lender made to you; On this day, this lender provided this request (copied language), followed with an appraisers response; Report altered, appraiser not an expert, etc, etc.

 

[Mile High Trout]

I will attest that BofA loan processors are total morons. They screwed around for two months on a first mortgage and I ended up going with Better Mortgage and it sailed through in two weeks. I asked for the reason they didn't approve, which is required by law, and after I had supplied every document known to man, they said, "Oh, you didn't supply all the documents we requested." I always though it was weird how Moynihan came out of the Crisis as CEO. Total morons.

Better Mortgage was the darling of the lending industry. They were paying over VA rates to direct panel appraisers.

Then they screwed their employees over, and their panel appraisers, dropped everyone overnight and refuses to answer calls or email inquiries for most appraisers for years now.

 

[Andee]

Holy Cow, here we are a month later and I'm getting another revision for this same property. Has anyone been asked to increase the Gift of Equity after the appraisal was complete? Please note, the original gift of equity was never given to me with the original assignment, it was sent after I completed the report, now they are requesting it to be increased. Why does this increase need to be referenced in the report?

 

[Surf Cat]

Holy Cow, here we are a month later and I'm getting another revision for this same property. Has anyone been asked to increase the Gift of Equity after the appraisal was complete? Please note, the original gift of equity was never given to me with the original assignment, it was sent after I completed the report, now they are requesting it to be increased. Why does this increase need to be referenced in the report?

So, was this a purchase appraisal? Wasn't the gift of equity notated in the contract?

I've never encountered such a request. This has to be from an AMC.