LO's -- appraisal question

[Anonymous]

We're not set to close until September 10 but I was surprised to learn that the FHA appraisal had already been done. There was just one minor repair that needs to be made, so I was happy about that.

I've just been so paranoid about obstacles that I keep expecting something to go wrong (we've been house hunting since March and were under contract once, and things hadn't been going well with the whole process). My LO is the VP of a reputable company here and has been in the business for a long time. I know he knows what he's doing and we feel very confident working with him...that being said, do you think it's a good sign that the appraisal's already been done? Is there any typical order of doing things, like having the credit file looked at and more or less approved before ordering the appraisal?

Thanks! I'm trying to wait to call him until I have a real reason besides just nerves!

[Anonymous]

Just to clarify, when I said having the credit file more or less approved, I didn't mean he hadn't already done that...we got a pre-approval with a thumbs up from AU. I more meant from an underwriter...but does the LO wait to send any of the file to UW until the appraisal's been done?

[Anonymous]

The bank isn't going to waste their time ordering the appraisal if you weren't good for closing.

You should be good to go!

COngrats!

[Anonymous]

Thanks! I hope you're right!!

[Anonymous]

A shameless bump for more opinions. Also, after my initial post I was reading about the underwriting process and saw that before underwriting gets the file, it goes through processing, which is when the appraisal is ordered. Correct? So I would assume it may not yet have gone to UW in any form. So I shouldn't necessarily get too confident...since the appraisor did have one repair they wanted taken care of (which the seller has agreed to do), will it not go to UW until that repair is taken care of and the appraisor has returned? Is that how that works?

[Anonymous]

We had our appraisal done early on and had no problems with closing.

[Anonymous]

6 days after I went into contract the appraisal was done. The LO said because of the market the only main problem she could foresee was a low appraisal and she wanted to order it first thing to make sure, so maybe that's why it's ordered early?  Either way with my bank they charge the appraisal fee when you submit the application, I guess to make sure you're serious about it?

[Anonymous]

I think it's a good sign in terms of if your LO thought getting an approval was at all questionable, s/he would have had you hold off on the appraisal. They obviously saw no issues with your file so they ordered it right away. It doesn't necessarily mean you've been submitted to underwriting, but it's still a positive thing.

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

Banks like one touch files

In other words they dont want to look at a package without an appraisal

Sounds quite normal and if he is as good as you say he wouldnt have ordered it unless it looked good

Brian

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Before we had found a house he said he'd be waiting to order the appraisal until he felt good about the file's chances of being approved so that we didn't waste money. I guess because he said that I was expecting the appraisal to be ordered a little further down the road. So I am hoping this means he feels good about the file! He said he did, but I'm paranoid. Trying to relax, but I'm in that wonderful waiting period...I called to touch base and they said it might be a week or two before we'd hear back from underwriting.

Message Edited by vitorbr on 07-30-2009 12:52 PM