Just Figured I'd ask, it seems very confusing to me. My SO Thinks we will be responsible for all the costs, while I think It would be what the appraiser charged initially, Any revisits by the bank are a requirement on their part.

Still confused why a completion report costs more on top of the appraisal.

I would speak to your loan originator or whoever is handling your application. There are truth in lending laws set forth by the consumer protection bureau. Tell them you were not told of fees for revisits. Also look through your paperwork to see if it mentions anything about fees for revisits.

For cryin' out loud... talk to the bank.

Stax, The whole reason I haven't asked the bank yet, I dont want them to come back with " Oh, Your right" you owe $1650 as mentioned in the post.

My point of the post is to gain knowledge on the appropriate fees associated with such things, So when I do ask, I have grounds to stand on. Isn't that what is forum is for? helpful information?

That is what I thought as well Chispa, I'm just curious if this kind of charge is normal, a separate " completion fee" and if I am without a doubt required to pay all appraisal fees or not by some standard or normal practice out there.

The amount that was disclosed on signed mortgage application is the legal amount you are required to pay. Anything more is on the bank. Was this on a mobile home appraisal report or a manufactured home form FNMA 1004C? That many visits seems excessive and it sounds like the bank did not have accurate information before sending the appraiser out. A completion report will always cost an extra sum because they are taking an extra trip to the property to make sure conditions have been met, it is its own separate report. Also, is this in a FEMA flood zone? That would answer the question to why they took another trip out to see if it was attached to permanent foundation.

This is for a Brick and mortar home with a mobile home at the back of the property, We were going to use it for storage, the previous owner( well current owner) with the state also shows it as personal property, not a dwelling. It is in a FEMA flood zone.

The reason they went back out to verify the mobile home wasn't on a permanent foundation is that initially, they said it had to be removed ( not the appraiser, but the bank requested the appraiser to put in on the report, as stated by the appraiser). after fighting them about it, they convinced the " investor" to let it stay but demanded it not be on a permanent foundation to qualify as personal property. The whole reason the mobile home was asked to be removed is that the " investor" looked at the listing.

So the additional $150 should have been listed in the initial paperwork? it was not, But, It was listed as $600 for the appraisal.

If the signed disclosure/loan estimate stated $600, that is the legal amount you are required to pay for the appraisal, nothing more. Refer to the TRID laws effective 2015. I'm not sure who you are referring to when you say "investor". Assuming the bank will be selling your loan on the secondary market, like FreddieMac, there was no need for them to make sure the crack in the window had been repaired. Freddie defines this as a minor repair and the appraisal should have been marked "as is". When you say removed, do you mean from the property or removed off of the appraisal? If it is not affixed to the ground it would be considered personal property, giving it no value on the appraisal.

Sorry, but I will disagree with some of the others. If the appaisal noted repairs (broken window), there is an extra fee charged by the appraiser for inspecting that repair when the repair is completed. (And Lenders have their own rules about what repairs they require to be fixed, besides what Fannie/Freddie/FHA require).That is known as a valid "Change of Circumstance" to the original fees quoted on the Loan Estimate. No one could possibly have known that there were repairs that would need to be reinspected when the fees were quoted at application.

You do not owe $1650. You owe either $500 or $600. If an appraisal managment company (AMC) was involved, the appraiser is owed $500 and the appraisal managment company collects $100 as their fee. Ask your loan originator if the cost includes a fee to the AMC.

I can't comment on why the last 2 visits didn't include both items, the mobile home and the window, that you should also ask your loan originator.

She's not interested in hearing an answer because she says she's afraid what the bank might say! lol

That sounds awfully predatory to me. $500 to doing entire appraisal, but another $500 2 make sure a cracked window pane has been replaced? Here, re-inspect visits are sometimes waived if you take a picture of the replaced window pane, & send to lender and to appraiser.

And the mobile home should be on the county tax rolls as private property. Even if it isn't, I don't see that peeking under it is worth $500 LOL. I also would want the lender to explain to me why they are concerned if someone leaves personal property on the site.

Edited to add, nothing I have written here is to be construed as legal advice.

She's not interested in hearing an answer because she says she's afraid what the bank might say! lol

Sounds reasonable. The OP has reason to suspect the bank is being charged more than they are passing along, so the question becomes is a chance at a $100 savings worth the risk of a $900 cost.

The bank has a negotiated contract with the appraisal management company and if that company is shady they can inflate charges by exploiting those negotiated fees. The appraiser may not even be aware that there were multiple things that could have been handled in one visit. It may not be typical that appraisal fees approach $2,000, but it is also not that rare. One of the go to stories for news outlets needing a consumer interest piece, is the exploitation of buyers by bad appraisal management companies.

It is absolutely a racket, and you can call your state's attorney general office to check it out, but I would be hesitant to march into the bank demanding an explanation, as you might just walk out poorer. Not that it is right, or something you can't fight, but it seems like more than a $100 headache to me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/paying-a-lot-for-an-appraisal-a-middleman-may-be-getting-a-large-part-of-the-fee/2017/03/20/acd52446-0d9a-11e7-ab07-07d9f521f6b5_story.html

I had an interesting experience with a loan...we were financing a mortgage on a property in order to do a full renovation. We were very clear from the start that this was in order to do construction etc.
At some point a couple weeks in, after we had signed the loan estimate, the home loan company came back with a revised quote with a higher interest rate. My husband and I were livid! But we felt stuck because it would have thrown off our contractor’s timeline...so we closed anyway without much complaint.

A month or so after closing, we got a letter and a check for the full cost of the fees on the loan because an audit found that they had violated the truth in lending laws! We ended up refinancing after the house was complete to a much more reasonable interest rate. So...don’t be afraid that they’ll charge you an extra $900...they can’t.

@hemina So...don’t be afraid that they’ll charge you an extra $900...they can’t.

Are you going to pay if they do?

The Truth in Lending Act treats reimbursement of third party fees differently. Those are considered Good Faith estimates under the Truth in Lending Act and are allowed to be changed, as they are just good faith estimates. In fact, in most cases, the TILA regulation Z doesn't require a bank to include appraisal fees on the form, but instead notes they are optional. There are "Changed Circumstances" rules that tell you under what conditions a lender must reissue the TILA disclosure versus not. I don't know the current iteration, but I believe for a time they didn't even have to issue a new disclosure for appraisal changes.

As a side note the lobbying body for appraisers wanted appraisal fees to be a required disclosure, but the agencies felt that it would be too confusing to homeowners because the fees could change and so left it as optional.

The rules for TILA reporting for interest rate are very different, those are not good faith estimates and have specific reporting requirements and may not be allowed to change. I am not an expert in this, so I am not guaranteeing this is true in every state, as several states have their own requirements for appraisals that may increase the reporting requirements, but it would be rare that a bank couldn't increase a good faith estimate 15%.

ETA: Also please understand, regulatory requirements are more difficult to compel than statutory requirements. In large part, the rules are whatever the regulatory body is deciding to enforce today (while an oversimplification still true) and so being right and compelling the bank to refund you $900 are two different things. Even if the bank violated a disclosure requirement, you being able to walk into a branch and force them to remedy it, is questionable.

@bry911-no, I’m not going to be held responsible for another adult to make their own decisions...I’m saying she needs to speak to her loan officer to clarify.

In my area, as a Realtor, I have seen reappraisals cost $100, not the cost of a whole new appraisal. Some people ask the seller for this if the reappraisal was due to repairs.

In my 16 years of experience, I have never seen a revisit cost much more than $150, and never the entire amount of the initial job. And any required revisits after the first one is due to a lack of communication between the lender and the appraiser. That additional cost should be borne on the lender.

Give them hell, and threaten to take your business elsewhere... my bet is they will cave easily.

Wow. I wish I could have charged $500 for a revisit. It doesn't happen. Depending upon the distance and time traveled a revisit and the associated paperwork would be $100 to $150.

As an appraiser, we are at the bottom of the list. We aren't the decision makers in these circumstances. It is out of our control. You as the buyer are also at the bottom of the list.

It is typical for one part of the underwriting process to ask for something, in this case, confirmation that the mobile home is personal property and not real property, then underwriting will turn around and ask for a confirmation that some other element has been repaired, in this case the window. This means two visits, two charges because the processor didn't get their act together and ask for it on one visit. Tell the loan officer to eat one of those visits. They can well afford it. Your appraiser won't be retiring on your fees.

Also, that appraiser won't get all $500 for the appraisal, either. The appraisal management company will get a piece of that fee, too. They get you and the appraiser coming and going. It's a racket.

Just an update to this. I ended up following up with the bank over the $100 fee variable and they indeed waived it. I had made up my mind that IF they decided they wanted more, I would go elsewhere.

I read multiple times over the contract, At the end of the day they ended up giving us over a $500 credit on the closing papers because they were charging OVER the maximum amount allowed by law, so they had to lower it( it wasn't specific on what the credit removed, just said over the maximum allowed by law) Then we received another $110 back after closing ( after the deposit was wired) because of an overage in the downpayment ( which our loan processor sent us)

turns out the loan processor was horrible, She didn't keep us updated, follow up on time, forgot this and that. Even sent confidential ( sensitive) documents over unencrypted email when everyone else, including our realtor, used a secure Document signing website.

Even the loan originator went over her head because she was doing such a terrible job that made us feel very uneasy and put our personal information at risk. The loan originator left two-three weeks later for another company and still came to closing to congratulate us and apologized for our loan processor.

To Stax's comment " She's not interested in hearing an answer because she says she's afraid what the bank might say! lol "

Money is money, I work hard for it. In every situation, you are dealt a hand, and it would just absolutely be ignorant to not consider both outcomes before coming to a decision knowing what to expect. The fear was being told we had to pay more, I wanted to reach out to potentially receive insight on the situation from another persons perspective, Which I have received good advice, and Idiotic responses such as yours.

thank you to everyone else.