V.A./F.H.A. Final Inspection Required, But Not Requested...

[Charlotte Dixon]

A strange thing is happening around my neck of the woods. I performed a Lap V.A. appraisal in early June which was subject to:
1. railing required down basement stairs
2) permanent steps to be built outside of back door
3) survey to be provided appraiser and veteran indicating he is purchasing at least 3 acres of land with improvements (discrepency between public record and Realtor's multi-list info, and I appraised it with 3 acres)

I just saw the property in the multi-list and it settled June 24th. What in the world is going on here? I called the processor and left a message (not letting on I knew it settled) asking when she wanted me to do the final on this particular property so that I could fill out the V.A. form, send it to them and close the file. No call back.

In addition, I got a call this week from another V.A. lender in another state saying they wanted me to do the final inspection on a home that I appraised last August. That one was new construction and was subject to carpet being installed. The lender is local, but the files get shipped to another branch out of state, I presume. This guy provided me with the owners home number and said he needed it now. What's wrong with this picture? What good does it do to write up all these MPR's if they're not enforced? I tryed to call the Philadelphia Regional office today, but guess they took an early 4th of July vacation. Does this ever happen to you V.A. or F.H.A. appraisers?

 

[Richard Carlsen]

Charlotte;

It has happened to us a a few times, even with regular bank lenders. I have a new construction right now that was subject to recorded access over neighbor’s land or installation of drive on the subject property (up a very steep hill). There was a call for a COC by the bank but I could not issue it due to unresolved access requirements, even though the house was finished.

I think the best way to handle this kind of problem is to just ignore it.

The problem essentially belongs to the lender, not the appraiser. If the lender makes the decision to fund the loan with a condition on the appraisal, that is their business.

At our office, we have taken to just putting the file away with our documentation and leaving it at that. If the lender comes back later and asks us about it, we pull the file and tell them what is in the file. Essentially, when we appraisers make a report “subject to”, we put the ball in the lenders court to get it done. One thing I don’t want to happen is to have the ball come back into my court so it costs me time and money to correct.

It is not our responsibility to do follow-up, make long distant calls and all else that is involved just to get them to do what is required to take the "subject to" off of an appraisal. They are big people and can read English. Let them do their job. That's what they get paid for and we don't.

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

Richard...I know you're right. It's like everything else in this world. On V.A. appraisals, many times there are MPR's which need to be satisfied. Some sellers have to correct these issues or not settle, some don't have to do anything because the lender doesn't care what the V.A. appraiser puts in the report. This one I mentioned above, where I did the new construction V.A. appraisal and it settled last August, has come back because the out of state lender said they can't sell the loan with this "subject to" clause in the report. They'll have a problem in this case because the homeowner won't let me in, and I don't blame him. Thanks, Richard!

 

[Verne Hebert]

Charlotte- I have seen it here a number of times on VA but never on an FHA. But check this one out. A full field review was done by VA on a property I had appraised with required repairs. The review came back to me for rebuttal, stating there must have been an oversight in my final repair inspection given the items as shown still existed in disrepair. I had never received a request for a repair inspection and told them so. I never heard any more about it.

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

Verne,

That certainly was strange! But, I am finding more and more that just because we were trained to look for the Three S's, that's not really as important as it previously was. I'm a stickler for detail, as I'm sure you are, and I know I'm really showing my age, but I figured that if repairs were called for, they should be done. I called the V.A. in Philadelphia about this the other day and the guy I work with up there said to just not worry about it, like Richard said. He said when they get ready to sell the loan, the contingencies will have to be removed. Of course, I guess they have White-Out for that!