All right, so let’s talk about the nuts and bolts when we’re talking about appraisals. Who pays for the appraisal anyway? And if I’m selling my home, and somebody’s gonna come in and put a value on it, that’s different than the value I put on it and my listing agent put on it, who is this person? Who are they working for? And how does this whole thing work?
Well, the buyer pays for the appraisal. And yes, if you are the buyer, you are going to have to pay for the appraisal outside of closing. It is kind of sort of rolled into your closing costs, but generally, your closing costs are going to be paid at settlement on the closing day, and the appraisal is going to have to be paid beforehand.
Why? Well, because in the instance that the appraisal throws a curveball to the whole situation, and you don’t end up closing those appraisers would never get paid, because nobody is going to pay for a sour deal that didn’t go through. So your lender is going to require that you pay that appraisal cost up front. And those numbers can vary, but usually between $500 and $1,000, is about where you’re going to land in our area. Again, I work in Richmond, Virginia, and all the surrounding counties, you know, in central Virginia, and that’s kind of a common cost here.
In the event of an appraisal dispute where you or the seller may request a new appraisal or a new appraiser, then that cost can be shared, it can be split, or sometimes the seller might offer to pay. Again, anything like that, as long as it’s legal can be worked out as long as everybody agrees on it.
Generally speaking, though, the data is what the data is. So you want to look long and hard before you pay for a new appraisal if the data is not going to be any different.
First, you’re going to try to dispute that original appraisal before you go looking for a new appraisal or a new appraiser. Because, if they’re going to pull the same data, then you’ve just wasted $500 to $1,000.
Follow along for more information about appraisers about appraisals, how the whole experience works, and what it can do to affect or impact your transaction whether you’re buying or selling.