George Souto

Even though FHA made major change to their appraisal requirements, some Realtors are still concerned about Loans that require an FHA Appraisal. Most of these Realtors still have concerns because they are not aware of the changes that occurred in January of this year, or they have not seen these change first hand yet.

I have done several CHFA, and FHA Loans since these change and I can truly say that there is very little difference between an FHA Appraisal and a Conventional Appraisal today. Since Januare I have only had one CHFA Loan that need repairs, and they wer minor. Here are some of the major changes that occurred in January:

Examples of MINOR property conditions that no longer require AUTOMATIC repair for existing properties are:

• Examples of Missing handrails;

• Cracked or damaged exit doors;

• Cracked window glass;

• Minor plumbing leaks (such as leaky faucets);

• Defective floor finish or covering (badly soiled carpeting);

• Rotten or worn out counter tops;

• Crawl Space with debris or trash;

• Defective paint surfaces in homes constructed Post 1978

Examples of tests that may no longer be REQUIRED:

• Wood Destroying Infestation Report-required if there is evidence of READILY OBSERVABLE ACTIVE infestation;

• Well (Individual Water Test)-Required if there is knowledge that well water may be near sources of contamination;

• Septic Test-required if evidence of system failure.

As you can see these were major changes!!