VA Appraisers: "The Luck of the Draw!"

Here in Kitsap County, Washington, we are fortunate to have a very large military community. With the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bangor Submarine Base, our area is home to many active-duty families and retired veterans. As a professional realtor, I have had the good fortune and joy of working with many of these hard-working, dedicated patriots and their families (check out my website for recent testimonials).

Many of my active military or veteran clients use VA loans for their home financing. I purchased my first two homes using VA loans. It can be an excellent financing product to use, requiring very little out-of-pocket expense, and with competitive rates. However, one of the potential difficulties with VA loans can be the appraisal process. It's something that I always take time to educate my Buyers about fully.

As a Buyer, once your agent assists you in finding just the perfect house, and your offer is accepted, you will hire a licensed inspector to conduct a full home & pest inspection, and identify any items that the Sellers will hopefully agree to correct.

After the inspection results are negotiated to the satisfaction of both parties, you will enter the "pending" stage of the transaction. At this point, your Mortgage lender will contact VA, and they, in turn, will order an appraisal to determine if the property can be valued at the price that you have agreed to pay for it.

In our area, our mortgage partners rarely know who the appraiser will be in a given transaction. It's a Russian roulette. Sometimes the appraisers are fair and reasonable, other times they can be extremely picky. Usually, they tend to be primarily concerned with structure and systems. They evaluate the roof, foundation, plumbing, electrical, heating/cooling, etc.. But sometimes, depending on who does the appraisal, they can be critical of other aspects of the home.

Many Buyers assume that since the home inspection was done, and the Sellers agreed to repair the things they requested, that everything is pretty much a "done deal" until closing.

Unfortunately, there may be some additional items that the VA appraiser will call out that need to be remedied or repaired prior to closing. An experienced real estate agent will wisely counsel their Buyers not to assume anything and to wait until the appraisal results come back from VA.

Hopefully, the appraiser will not find any problems or issues that were not identified during the home inspection. If that's the case, then the rest of your home buying experience should move along fairly smooth to closing, and you will successfully achieve the Next Adventure in Life!

Rich Jacobson, www.KitsapLife.com