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It seems that there are big, big changes in the lending and appraisal industry much more often than what used to be the norm.  Today is no different.  Today is the first day that any appraisal done for an FHA insured loan has to be done by a Certified Residential Appraiser.  To explain a little further, I will explain the different level of Appraisers.

When it comes to state licensing levels there are three categories of Real Estate Apprasiers:Licensed Appraiser, a Certified Appraiser, and a Certified General Appraiser. 

A Licensed Appraiser can do residential appraisals for values up to $1,000,000 and can do up to four plex's with a value of no greater than $250,000. 

A Certified Appraiser can do residential appraisals for a property of any value, and do four plexes regardless of the value.  Any property that has more than four units, is considered a commercial property.

A Certified General Appraiser can do any residential and commercial appraisal, regardless of value.

Prior to today, a Licensed Appraiser could do FHA Appraisals, provided they had been approved by FHA.  After today, only Certified Residential and/or Certified General Appraisers can do FHA Appraisals (provided of course that they have been FHA approved).

The net effect of this is that there are now fewer Appraisers that can do FHA Appraisals.  All the Appraisers that were Licensed, but not Certified, now have to scramble to become Certified, or lose the FHA business forever.  Mortgage Brokers that relied on Licensed Appraisers to do their FHA appraisals, now have to find different Appraisers that are at least Certified and FHA approved.

Fortunately we are Certified Residential Appraisers that are also FHA approved.  I do feel bad for the Licensed guys though that just lost some FHA work.  I hope they can become Certified and recover that business in the near future.

If you need an FHA Appraisal done, please don't hesitate to contact us.  We can help.