Post Tropical Storm Irene Appraisals

Many properties under deposit and past the appraisal process recently had to be reappraised - a reinspection, really -- to determine that the properties were not damaged in Tropical Storm Irene. Given the pictures of Vermont devasatation in newspapers and online, it's understandable that banks would want reassurance that the properties they were about to lend money on were in good shape.

In most cases, the appraiser went back to the property and did an exterior inspection to see if the location was near a body of water and if the exterior looked to be in good condition. This did not take long but appraisers were doing inspections for many properties in addition to their current work load. In most cases, we had to delay closings until the inspection could be completed and underwriters sign off on the inspection.

With more stringent guidelines for lending in general, closings are taking longer. Underwriters are often out of state and are not aware of subtle differences in Vermont requirements vs other states. (For instance, we don't have termites in Vermont but they want to see termite inspection reports.) Buyer and sellers (and their agents) have to be patient with requests for different verifications. And recently, we've had to be patient and leave time for last minutes snags. Like flooding!

All the properties we had under deposit during the storm have closed, but we are now suggesting that closings are scheduled farther out than in the past. If we can move the closings up to earlier dates, that is much better than asking for extensions.