Buyer Beware When Paying For Appraisal Fees
Beth Atalay Broker Owner of Cam Realty and Property Management shares a great blog post full of informative information when it comes to appraisals. When purchasing a "short sale" do you know when to order the appraisal? Knowing the facts could help save your buyer money in the long run.
Please stop by Beth's post and leave your comments....
Buyer Beware When Paying For Appraisal Fees
There are plenty of fees we all pay for, some are truly junk fees and should be avoided/stopped.
When obtaining a mortgage, be prepared to pay fees for several different items and most are legitimate. Fees vary from lender to lender and state to to state, it’s best to shop around for a mortgage that would work for YOU! When shopping around for a mortgage, be sure to ask for a Good Faith Estimate to compare fees, rates and terms.
Beware of “No Cost” mortgages, they don’t exist. Again, fees and interest rates may vary but buyers do have to pay money to borrow money.
For the purpose of this post, the fee I would like to highlight is the Appraisal Fee. If you’re obtaining a mortgage, you will pay for an appraisal, no getting around it. Appraisals are performed by a third party and lenders do not/should not make any money off of these fees. The cost for a typical appraisal should be around $400.00-$500.00, lenders may require two appraisals to be performed on higher end homes as well as investment properties.
Appraisals are usually valid for about 30 days. If you’re buying a home that is listed as a Short Sale, I would suggest NOT to pay for an appraisal until there’s an “Executed” short sale approval letter.
What is an Executed Short Sale Approval? Short Sale lender issues an approval letter which may have some conditions to be met by the borrower(homeowner) and/or the new buyer. The approval letter is not a valid one until everyone agrees to the terms of the approval. Once the new buyer has a copy of the letter, it “should” be safe to pay for an appraisal.
What if the appraisal is done prior to receiving the Short Sale approval letter? It’s no mystery that Short Sales are anything but short. In fact, I’ve personally had a few that took over 12 months. Underwriters may not accept an appraisal that was performed months prior to closing and ask for the buyer(borrower) to pay for an appraisal for the second time. If you’re working with a Realtor® and a Mortgage Broker/Lender who have extensive Short Sale experience, they should be able to guide you through the process and caution you as necessary.
Whether you’re looking to sell your Clermont FL home or looking to buy a home, I would love to hear from you. Call me at 407-929-1852, email bethatalay@gmail.com or visit www.wheretoliveinorlando.com
Buyer Beware When Paying For Appraisal Fees
Beth Atalay, Broker/Owner
Cam Realty and Property Management
407-929-1852
www.wheretoliveinorlando.com BethAtalay@Gmail.com
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