r/appraisal

Any thoughts on a fairly dirty hoarded house for a FHA loan? Not sure if the hoard and lack of cleaning should be considered C5. Any suggestions or thoughts greatly appreciated! Thanks

If you have a two-unit residential property, and one unit is a c4 and one unit is a c5, what rating do you give the property as a whole? Does the presence of a c5 unit make the whole property a c5 or does the fact that *most* of the property is a c4 mean it’s a c4? I told the lender that it was c4/c5 and they want me to make an “overall” condition rating. Any guidance or advice is welcome, thank you!

I run a boutique CRE consulting firm in Los Angeles, and we’re considering hiring a mid-career commercial appraiser in-house.

The role would be less traditional “report production” and more valuation, appraisal review, underwriting, comp analysis, and advisory work across real estate consulting assignments.

For commercial appraisers:

1. What salary range would make this type of role attractive right now?
2. What benefits or structure matter most — hybrid, bonus, profit share, fewer billable hours, better work-life balance, deal exposure?
3. What would make you leave a traditional appraisal shop for an in-house consulting role?
4. What would be a red flag?

Not a formal job post, but if you’re a Southern California commercial appraiser and this sounds interesting, feel free to DM me. Mostly trying to understand the market before designing the role.

If there are any fellow appraisers or real estate agents that have access to mls or costar could you run a quick comp search in Mississippi for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We are currently in the process of doing a cash out refi in order to do a complete exterior renovation (roof, siding, facia, gutters). We currently have a conventional mortgage. We owe 90k on our home that has an estimated value of 275-290k. We are only seeking 80k for a new loan amount of 170k. The roof is nearing the end of its life and it definitely shows.

During our conversations with our mortgage lender, we were informed that the lowest rates would be an fha loan.

My question is, should we be concerned that the roof will not pass the fha inspection? And, does it make a difference that the money will immediately go to having the exterior work done? We have contractors saying they are only have 1-2 weeks of lead time on roof work, so we would be able to immediately repair the roof. Is it bad practice to mention this to the appraiser/ inspector so he does not fail us for the one thing we are trying to finance ? (Siding and gutters are in ok shape, but we plan on doing those also)

Just got invited to Reggora’s 3.6 form software beta, not sure if others got the email. I heard about it earlier this week. They’re saying it’s free, which I hope is the case. Does anyone know anything about it?

https://www.reggora.com/products/forms

How common is it to not get paid for the 1st month when working for an appraisal firm? What do you do during that time?

I interviewed at an appraisal firm some months ago and the guy said that they pay fees after 1 months instead of after 2 or 3. I was shocked as I'd normally had salaried positions, but I'd been told that that's how most firms worked. However most places I'd worked are larger firms where the appraisers had a draw.

What if you're at a smaller place that pays fees only once a month or less often but didn't give you a draw? How do people survive?

UPDATE:

I sent a list of very specific questions to our lender to clarify what's going on and magically, the response was that the appraisal had just arrived. After much discussion where the lender made us push back our closing another day due to the 3 day law, we finally got a copy of our appraisal and there is no actual appraised value in the packet, just the Uniform Property Data Report. There is this note though: Based on the property data submitted and the last DU submission, no appraisal is required for this case."

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We are confused about our situation and hope someone can help clarify our options. Our realtor has been very helpful so far, but she's out of town right now and she's also the broker, so we can't reach out to anyone else.

Our lender appeared to be helpful too, but I'm not getting very far with my questions.

All that to say, I don't know who else to reach out to.

We paid the appraisal fee 22 days ago.

13 days ago, our lender emailed to say that we would only need a desktop appraisal so some of our fee would be returned to us.

6 days ago, we got this email from our lender: "we have been unable to get an appraiser to schedule to view your new home.  We have an option to keep trying this company to engage a local appraiser OR cancel the order and hope the next appraiser is responsive.  This happens sometime but not a lot." Then later that afternoon, we got an email saying that an appraiser had reached out to the seller.

Since then, we've been told by our lender that the appraisal was coming in "today" and each day it never did. Our realtor blamed this delay on our lenders for not following up. Before she left, she called our lenders. They told her that the appraiser had the flu and that caused the delay. However, the flu supposedly happened between 7-12 days ago.

I called and talked to the lender today. She seemed unclear if the inspection had happened or not. She kept asking me if I was there. The only information I have about the appraisal situation has come from the lender emails. The lender said she would put a rush on the situation again, but they've been saying "rush" the whole time.

I sent an email to the lender tonight asking very specific questions about the who / what / when of the situation.

When we sold our place (closed today), the appraiser did a site visit within 3 days. The new house is located about 3 hours away, but not in another state or anything.

What can we do here? Are we truly at the mercy of everyone else? We are in a temporary housing situation that won't be an option much longer.

I received an appraisal assignment directly from a lender and rolled my eyes as soon as I looked up the listing. The listing agent has always been unpleasant to deal with and I don't think he is a very good agent. This year, I have appraised three properties he was involved with that had a higher contract price than my opinion of value. He went through Tidewater on one but did not request a ROV on either of the others. His contracts are always pushing the limits but anyone familiar with looking at market data could quickly see the problem with these contract prices.

I tried to schedule the inspection through the mls and the request was denied with no explanation. The next day I sent him a text asking for clarification but received no response. The next day the lender reassigned the report. The listing agent says they were told I had a conflict of interest. Someone else close to the deal told me the listing agent was threatening to have his sellers cancel the deal unless the lender used a different appraiser.

I know this violates appraiser indolence regulations, but I don't think a realtor is bound by Reg Z. Are they violating realtor code of ethics? I'm not sure who I need to bring this up with.

I’m a realtor trying to figure out if the skirting around a home would be considered a red flag for a USDA appraisal? The house has a vinyl skirting around the foundation (the kind used for siding but turned sideways). It has been torn up by the guys doing weed whacking and we’re trying to figure out if this is something that would require a repair? Only because the sellers are elderly and don’t have a ton of money to throw at the issue.
Oh ALSO there is an unused above ground oil tank and boiler in the garage. It is not at all attached to the home. Will this be an issue as well?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

For those of you doing UAD 3.6 on Alamode, can comments be carried over from old reports? Or is all that commentary not necessary? Neighborhood and markket condition comments sections don’t seem to exist.

Hello all! I will try to make this as short as possible. I bought a home at 24 years old, I loved the home then and still do. However, after looking over the tax assessor's page this year I noticed that the square footage was not the same as when the home was listed, nor the "accurate square footage" I am not sure how I missed this, it could have been me being insanely busy during the home-buying process or just a young, dumb 24 year old who didn't know what they were doing (probably a bit of both to be fair lol) Anyways!

The listing said the home was 972 finished sq ft at $170 per sq footage

The appraisal said the home is 851 finished sq ft, as does the tax assessor's page

The home is actually only 672 sq ft of GLA (Gross Livable Area)

Turns out the listing agent added both the unheated sunroom (no permanent heating) and the basement room below the sunroom (again unheated and also below-grade) The appraiser also included the unheated sunroom, but not the basement room. Regardless, I thought only heated rooms, that are above grade count towards GLA.

I feel like I was very much screwed over, when I go to sell I am very, very worried about taking a loss due to the listing agents lies and appraisers' incompetence.

I am wanting to hire a real estate attorney to type up a demand letter for negligent or intentional misrepresentation. I am wanting to demand a $15,000 cash settlement, if they don't settle, I plan on telling them I will immediately file a formal complaint for fraud with the state licensing board. Am I likely to win a settlement, if anyone has any insight please let me know! The difference between 851 sq ft and 672 sq ft is a massive 31% discrepancy; an even larger discrepancy if you base it off the listing agents "972 sq ft"

If you made it this far, thank you and if you have any insight please again do help out! Ya girl is stressed. Oh also, I bought the home 2 years ago for reference!

I had an appraisal of my home, the walkthrough seemed to go fine. The appraiser said it should take about a week. Then over two weeks passed, I checked with the lender and they said the appraiser had asked for extensions. Then at around 3 weeks I find out a new appraiser was assigned and the last one completely ghosted. How common is this? Should I be worried? This has already caused issues and delays.

I've now completed my 3rd UAD 3.6 report, and it's definitely getting easier and faster with each report. I'm currently using AIVRE, and overall it's been a good experience, although I don't have much basis for comparison since I haven't used any of the other UAD 3.6 platforms.

I'm curious what software other appraisers are using and what their experiences have been so far.

My biggest frustration at the moment is the Sales Comparison Grid. Having to scroll up and down through three pages is extremely tedious and inefficient. I'm used to seeing all of my comparables and adjustments on a single screen so I can easily analyze the adjustments and fine-tune them as needed. I brought this concern to the AIVRE team and am hoping they can find a way to make the grid more appraiser friendly. Hopefully it's something they'll actually address.

Another observation is that the AI features haven't been as useful as I initially expected. After completing several reports, I've found that I actually prefer working without AI assistance. It tends to slow me down because I have to review and verify everything it generates. At this point, I'd rather rely on my created templates that give me more control over the report content and reduce the risk of missing information or having something entered incorrectly.

Interested to hear what others are experiencing with UAD 3.6 software and whether you've found any platforms that stand out.

My relative owns a vacant lot that is across the street from a lakefront home that recently sold for 2.95 million. The house that sold was very nice, custom built and the structure is worth 750k It was assessed at 1.35 million (land and structure), considerably less than it was worth.. but a revaluation is happening this year. Current taxes before this sale on the home on the lake were $21,000/yr.

His lot is a little over an acre and has deeded access to the lake via a 50' ROW. There is a small shared dock. The lake is considered very desirable and property does not come on the market very often. No land with a deeded ROW to this lake has sold in the last 12 years. He is wondering what his lot is likely worth given the recent sale.. and what the assessor might re-assess the property for.

I know that isn't a whole lot to go o,n but am just looking for a ballpark idea of how appraisers/assessors value land in this type of situation. His land was assessed at 110k before this happened and he is shocked how much the property across the street sold for.

Hello I am interested in this industry, if anyone knows about a opportunity in NYC/NJ please reach out.