Thank you so much for pointing out my shortcomings. To answer your question, I have been doing FHA appraisals since 1992. Just to show you I am not hallucinating, I did find what I was looking for, though it does not apply in this case. I was thinking of an FHA STREAMLINED refinance, which this is not, it would have needed to be an FHA loan already, the streamline is designed to lower the monthly P & I on a current FHA insured mortgage. In the streamline, if an appraisal is required FHA does not require the repairs (except for lead based paint) to be completed, although the lender may require repairs beyond LBP. I used to do quite a few of these, and that is what I was thinking of (Ref Hdbk 4155.1, Rev. 4 Chapter 1, and Mortgagee Letter 1996-10. I have gone years without doing an FHA refinance, now it seems that the FHA refinance may be back in favor. I think that this was a good question, as many of us may start to see both FHA streamlined refinances and refinances into the FHA program as FHA is back in business after years of very low volume, at least in my practice area