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I am just getting my info from the realtor and the messages from the appraiser that the bank passes along to me; we don't have access to the house. I would like another appraiser but I didn't know how to go about doing that. Just call up the bank and tell them? I was afraid it wouldn't be successful and then the current appraiser would be angry at us for complaining and lowball the house, but now it sounds like the bank isn't allowed to communicate with the appraiser, so maybe she wouldn't even know? Maybe I am just being paranoid. This is so confusing.
Going through the process myself, the whole thing sounds strange. The house we are buying s also unoccupied, but I didn't hear of any issues with the appraisal. The bank ordered it, the appraiser went to the house and did their job, spoke to at least one neighbor and got their report done and to the bank quickly. The bank forwarded the report to me. Are you working with a loan officer or someone at your bank that you can contact with your concerns?
I'd call your lender and tell them all about the appraiser. Just yesterday in my office there was a realtor complaining about a very similar situation. Long story short, the buyer of the property called their lender and had a new appraiser assigned (VA loan). As realtors, we can call and complain but it doesn't necessarily hold much weight with a lender because we are not their customer; you are though
The realtor is our agent, the selling realtor refuses to do anything to help out in this process. It is a conventional mortgage and each $100 fee is being added onto to our closing costs.
The electricity was turned on at the house, but the appraiser was asked to flip the breaker. I guess she informed the realtor that she does not do that, so realtor had someone go flip the breaker for her. Only problem is he got there to do it around noon and she had already made the trip that morning, even though realtor specifically asked her to not to go until she told her everything was ready. Same thing with the water, it had been re-turned on at the city connection point but no one had made it to the house yet to turn it on at the house.
Is your lender notifying you that you are being billed a $100 fee or hearing this from your agent? Why is your agent communicating with the lender as you are the lender's client, not your agent.
Secondly, no home appraiser is EVER going to be turning your main utility connections off and on (unless they are beyond stupid). Unless it is a lender requirement, having the utilities on and operating is not a requirement. The appraiser just has to note that in the report. If the appraiser turns water on at your main value and there's a leak on the interior walls, the appraiser responsible for that damage. Do you think the appraiser is going to take that risk? No chance. The appraiser will perform the serviceability checks on the mechanical systems of the house but those systems must be enabled -- electricity on, water on, gas on, etc. If these systems are not available, the appraiser notes that in the report and then it is up to the lender to determine how to proceed.
Last edited by TexasDillo; 04-08-2015 at 12:24 PM..
I wonder about an appraiser who keeps making the same mistake over and over again and not checking for access. I'd ask the bank to assign a new appraiser to the loan.
I don't understand about the bank passing info along to you....but yet charging you for inappropriate, unprofessional and...I would say...unstable behavior on the part of their appraisor. And I know you got those bills. But hopefully you're not paying them. Hopefully the buyer isn't paying for them.
Since, hopefully, you have told your lender every step of the way about this highly irregular behavior of their appraisor, I would also make a clear list of date and time and this behavior as well as your phone calls and send it to the lender rep you're talking with, to superiors. Something is very wrong there. Sometimes a clear statement of simple facts (in their days of lots of stuff all mingled together with a great number of buyers) will hit them in a different way...especially if there are significant cc's.
Well, update, the realtor asked the bank to not charge us for all these extra trips she is making since she wouldn't have made them if she had just communicated with the realtor first and when I talked to the processor at the bank afterwards, she said there was just one additional $100 charge (even though she has made a total of 4 trips out there) so maybe we won't be charged as much as I was afraid of...or they are just trying to placate us and will surprise us at closing with a bunch of extra fees, who knows. I'm okay with one extra charge because maybe our realtor shares some of the blame for not handling this better, not sure.
...So the appraiser sends a message to our bank that it is being placed on hold and we are to advise when we're ready for the appraisal. All well and good, right? Except then she went out there this morning (the very next day after we received the message about everything being on hold) to attempt to do another appraisal, even though nobody told her we had the property ready and the realtor specifically asked her to wait until she let her know everything was ready. (The property is almost an hour away from both selling and buying realtors, so that's why it is so complicated to get someone out there to get it ready.)...
It is good to see that the lender is communicating with you about the delay. The appraiser likely reported to the lender that the home is not ready for the site inspection so the lender decided to change the loan status to "on hold". The fact that it may have taken the lender a couple of days to contact you also isn't that unusual. I've had the reverse situation occur wherein a borrower was told by his agent that the home was ready for the appraisal, the borrower notified the lender, and it took five days before the lender notified me that it was ready. (I learned about the delay from talking to the agent.) Things like that happen.
Deleted the second part of my response due to post #16 directly above.
I wonder about an appraiser who keeps making the same mistake over and over again and not checking for access. I'd ask the bank to assign a new appraiser to the loan.
Checking for access? Got back to post #1 -- it's an unoccupied house on a lockbox. Access is already there -- assuming the combination is correct.
No, it wasn't a seller requirement for the agent to be at the appraisal, but the appraiser was evidently expecting it because the first time she arrived, she called both agents, couldn't get a hold of either one within 30 minutes and then left. My realtor says she had emailed her the code for the lockbox ahead of time, but apparently she didn't see the email or something, I don't know, because she couldn't figure out how to get into the house. Shouldn't getting into houses with lockboxes be routine for an appraiser? Definitely don't understand it.
No, it wasn't a seller requirement for the agent to be at the appraisal, but the appraiser was evidently expecting it because the first time she arrived, she called both agents, couldn't get a hold of either one within 30 minutes and then left. My realtor says she had emailed her the code for the lockbox ahead of time, but apparently she didn't see the email or something, I don't know, because she couldn't figure out how to get into the house. Shouldn't getting into houses with lockboxes be routine for an appraiser? Definitely don't understand it.
I've had real estate agents give me a numeric code and I get to the property only to find that the lockbox is alphabetic, not numeric. If I can contact the agent and get the correct information while I'm on-site, I do that and all is well. After waiting a reasonable amount of time for them to respond, I notify the lender. That is part of my obligation to my client, the lender, and they ask that I notify them in these situations. Whether I want to charge the lender a trip fee for my time and expenses is up to me -- that is my business decision. If the lender then bills the borrower, that is up to the lender -- that is their business decision.
That old saying is correct -- time is money. If I'm parked in front of a home that I can't get in to, that costs me time AND money.
I guess my advice here is to make sure your agent is enabling the transaction by making themselves and the property available to the appraiser and others, e.g., home inspector, repair folks, etc. Make sure that the agent responds to appointment times and phone calls expeditiously. Their mistakes can cost you money. Or worse, the loan.
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