I thought this would be a good place to ask, but maybe you guys don't know/care who pays additional charges, as long as you get paid.
You're starting out on shaky ground here with this statement. Appraisers get screwed out of their fees more often than you most probably don't want to know. One company just closed up owing $11million in appraisal fees and many appraisers are out months and months of income, which if you read what some of them lost, they must surely be reduced to food stamps and loosing their business. So stick to the question you have.
On this purchase, the appraisal (eventually) came in ok.
We don't really care if it came in "ok" for you. We have no interest whether you get what you want or not. That is the job of your agent to get you what you want.
Besides the listing agent rejecting the first appraiser,
Well, this is supposed to be against federal law. Agents are interested parties that get a bigger pay check if they get you to pay more for a property so they have a vested interest in getting buyers to pay the highest price and are not allowed to accept or reject appraisers.
he missed the aoopintment on the second one.
Now the situation is the appraiser is charginf $125 for a missed appointment. The appraiser said he knocked on the door, called the agent, and waited an hour. The listing agent that was scheduled to meet him said the seller was home, and the appraiser had the code and should have used the lock box. Appraiser says he was not given the code, and nobody answered the door.
Sue your agent for the money for missing the appointment. Do you expect to drive to work hang out at work for an hour, drive home and not get paid? Would you expect your doctor to clear his other patients for an hour to sit and wait on you and not get paid?
What would you do in this instance?
You pay the appraiser and sue the agent for the money, because it was the agent that was making the arrangements and had a fudicary responsibility to not screw it up.
As the buyer, am I the one that gets stuck paying this? Technically 'I' paid for the appraisal, but it was done for the bank, so I assume they will just hand it down to me.
Yup
In addition, there was a $135 'complexity charge' added to the top of the appraisal. Is this a standard charge, or is the guy just annoyed with the transaction.
Yup, it is a charge that could be there for several reasons which include but are not limited to:
1. A unique property in the current market, big, small, high quality, low quality, too many garages, something that requiring additional work to appraise.
2. A rural or lakefront, or riverfront, or Oceanfront property or one with horse barns or other special amenities like a tennis court or indoor basketball court, requiring additional work to appraise.
3. A property that may be typical for the market place, but the appraisal was ordered as a rush because someone else waited until the last minute to place the appraisal. Rush appraisals typically command a rush premium price. Regardless to what other people think. We all just don't sit around with nothing to do until some one decides to buy a house. We try very hard to schedule our week, or month or couple of months so that we have sufficient work to make a living. So when you have to clear your schedule for a rush job, there is an up charge for that, because it backs up all the other work you promised to do.
4. A PIA charge, due to other appraisers not wanting to work for a particular management company or lender so they have all upped their fees to that company, due to bad reputation or previous bad relations, or notorious reputation for being a PIA to work for.
5. Your lender quoted a low appraisal fee to suck you into using them and then has to up charge you to cover the actual cost of the appraisal.
6. No other reason other than they did not max out the closing cost percentage allowed by law, so the lender is up-charging you to collect the maximum closing costs allowed by law, and blaming it on the appraisal because most times, you will not know what the appraiser was paid, or the earliest you will know that is 3 days before closing, and it most likely will include the fees paid to the AMC, which is not the appraiser.
7. An up charge for an FHA or USDA loan that require more work and liability for the appraisal report.
It seems crappy that I, being the buyer, will be stuck with $255 in extra fees from the service. Can this effect my closing?
It will impact your closing if you don't pay all the closing fees, so yes. Think it's crappy for you? Some borrowers are paying $600 for appraisals that the appraiser is only getting paid $200-$300 and is waiting 30-60-90 days to collect that fee, without interest.
But on the plus side. You might find out that you are over-paying for a property, based on the analysis of the appraisal, and might be able to get the sale price reduced.
Or the appraisal might point out some maintenance deficiencies that you did not know were there.
At minimum, the appraisal should show you that you are paying a market price for the property. The appraisal fee, should provide an appraisal that provides a valuable service to you by enhancing your knowledge of the property, the neighborhood and the market conditions. It should not just be a crappy fee to complain about.
By the way, what is the sales commission your agent is getting paid in your closing costs, for missing appointments?
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