How long are appraisals good for??

[BCEquities]

I have been asked many times, how long is an appraisal good for. Whether you are refinancing, taking out a 2nd mortgage, a Home Equity Line of Credit or just taking cash-out, you will need to have your home appraised. There are two separate stages that will determine the status of your appraisal. They are the 90-day mark, and the 6-month mark. The appraisal will be done in a specific lender or broker’s name. The appraisal can be used by that company for 90-days. After 90-days you will have to get what is called a “Re-certification of Value”, basically they will pull more local comparable home prices or “Comps”, to make sure your value hasn’t changed. Once your appraisal goes over 6 months you will need a Brand New Appraisal to be done.
Remember, that depending on who pays for the appraisal will determine whether you can switch companies during processing of your loan. But that is another “Q & A”; I will post more about that soon.

[JimFoster]

that is a valuable information. In Hawaii though, the appraisals are made much lower than the actual price that it will sell, but its still required when putting your property on the market.

[afm1]

Jim,
Can you explain a little more? If the appraisal comes in lower than the sales price that must be a nightmare on every transaction. How do you overcome this issue?

[Homes in Las Vegas]

I was wondering if you could have a second appraisal done if you believe the first appraiser to have underestimated the value of the property? If so would the highest appraisal of the two be used, or would it be the last appraisal to have been done?

[afm1]

The investor would take the lower of the two. The question is, why did it come in lower than the anticipated value?

If you know of some other comps(sales) in the are that may help support the value, I would try to work with your current appraiser and see if he can adjust it accordingly.

To resolve this issue, you could get another appraisal done and they submit the package to another investor/underwriter. It will still have to make sense to them and the comps must support the value. How far off it he?

Always remember this...an appriaser cannot inflate a value. He could get in serious legal trouble. However, if you have a more liberal appraiser, it will still have to get past an underwriter, an appraisal review and perhaps even a desktop or field review (which most companies require now).

[San Diego Real Estate]

afm1...

Great information as usual! How do you see values in your area holding speaking of appraisals? ;)

[afm1]

SDR,
Values are holding strong. Here is the problem I am having, I will use an example that happened late last week.

My agent calls me, says she got a bid, $220K for a condo. Here is the problem. I called my appraiser and she had 4 recent sales, all same square footage, all same number of bedrooms, all within the complex. They sold for $205K.

She could not find the extra $15K because it was virtually impossible. Agents must do some homework on the properties before they go out and start shooting for the stars.

Catch my drift? :p