VA Appraisal vs a Home Inspection

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Listen: The VA Playbook on This Topic

This guide is covered in the Jacksonville Real Estate Podcast's VA Playbook series:

VA Playbook 26: The VA Appraisal Is Not a Home Inspection

VA Playbook 27: The VA Appraised It, So It's Fine

 What the VA appraisal does

The VA appraiser works for the lender. The report has two jobs: what the house is worth, and whether it meets minimum property requirements so the guaranty can attach. You do not pick the appraiser. You do not steer the value.

Value comes from closed sales, not from the payment you need. A ranch in Arlington and a newer house in eTown are not the same comparable set. If the number lands under the contract, that is a value problem. An air conditioner near the end of its life is a different problem.

 What minimum property requirements cover

Minimum property requirements ask if the house is safe, structurally sound, and sanitary. Peeling paint on a pre-1978 house, a roof that is actively failing, exposed wiring, a missing handrail, and no reliable water are the kinds of items that stall a file.

The checklist is not a forecast of the next five years. A roof with life left can pass and still worry an insurance carrier. A water heater in the garage can pass and still be on its last year. The appraiser is not there to name every worn system.

 What Tidewater means

Tidewater is the notice the appraiser sends when the value may come in short of the contract price. It goes to the lender before the report is finished. That window is your chance to send comparable sales the appraiser may not have used.

The lender runs the clock. We will not invent a number of hours here. Have the comps ready the day the notice hits, not after the report is already final. Tidewater stays on the value track. Repairs stay on the inspection track.

 Why your inspection is a separate contract

The home inspection is your contract. You choose the inspector. You pay the fee. You get the report. A seller who says the house is ready for VA has not done that job for you.

You can clear minimum property requirements and still have a rough inspection. You can have a clean inspection and still get a Tidewater notice. In northeast Florida, ask the lender whether the file also needs a wood-destroying insect report. That report is a third document.

 Roofs, paint, and what stalls a file

In Jacksonville the stall we see most often is condition the appraiser cannot ignore: peeling paint, an active roof leak, soft wood, or a safety item on stairs and decks. Those are minimum property requirement items. The guaranty waits on them.

An older roof is also an insurance item, even when the appraiser does not call it out. Get the homeowners quote while you are still inside the inspection period. We do not publish a premium. The quote belongs to that house, that year, and that carrier.

 How to run both on a PCS clock

Order the appraisal as soon as the lender will send it. Book the inspection for the first open morning, and show up. If Tidewater lands, your agent should already know the nearby sales. Buyers headed to NAS Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport, or Blount Island do not have a spare month hiding in the orders.

The VA contract gives you a path if the value comes in under the price. The inspection contingency is a different paragraph. Use them as two tools. Read more in the VA loan knowledge center, and see VA loan occupancy timing before you pick a closing date. Call (904) 309-0609.

From the Podcast

Full transcripts of the VA Playbook episodes covering this guide. More episodes

VA Playbook 26: The VA Appraisal Is Not a Home Inspection

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Isn't the V A appraisal basically a home inspection? Short answer: no. And confusing the two is one of the most expensive mistakes a V A buyer can make.

Welcome to V A Playbook, a special series from The Jacksonville Real Estate Podcast, by Military Realty of Florida. I am Mike.

Here is the cleanest way to separate them. The appraisal works for the lender and for V A. The inspection works for you. The appraiser answers two questions: what is this house worth, based on closed sales nearby, and does it meet V A Minimum Property Requirements, meaning it is safe, structurally sound, and sanitary enough for V A to guaranty the loan. That is the whole job. Value, plus a safety floor.

The appraiser does not work for you, you do not pick the appraiser, and the appraiser is not there to tell you what your life in that house will look like in three years. The appraiser does not run the air conditioner through a full cycle, test every outlet, crawl the whole attic, or tell you the water heater has one summer left in it. If a problem cannot be seen on a walk-through, the appraisal will not find it, because finding it is not the assignment.

Your home inspection is the opposite arrangement. You hire the inspector, you pay the inspector, and the report belongs to you. A good Jacksonville inspector tests the systems, checks for moisture where Florida hides it, looks hard at the roof's remaining life, and flags the stuff that passes the V A floor today but empties your wallet tomorrow. Old plumbing that is not leaking yet. An aging air handler that still cools. Electrical panels and wiring from another era in an Arlington or Riverside house.

Picture a four hundred thousand dollar purchase in Orange Park. The appraisal can come back clean, at value, no repairs required, while your inspector hands you a report with a roof near the end of its life and a water heater on borrowed time. Both reports are telling the truth. They are just answering different questions. One says the loan can be made. The other says get ready to spend money in year one.

The reverse happens too. Your inspection can be nearly spotless on a newer Nocatee build while the appraisal comes in short on value, because value comes from comparable sales, not from how shiny the kitchen is. A clean inspection does not fix a value gap, and a strong appraisal does not fix a bad roof. Different tools, different paragraphs in your contract, different deadlines.

There is also an asymmetry in what it costs to be wrong. Your inspection costs a few hundred dollars, paid once, up front. The surprises it catches run to the thousands, and they tend to arrive in your first Jacksonville summer, when the air conditioner works its hardest and the afternoon storms test every roof and window seal. Skipping the inspection to save the fee is the most expensive bargain in the whole purchase.

One more document confuses people here in Florida. A wood destroying organism report, the termite report, is a third, separate item. In much of northeast Florida the lender will want one, and it is neither the appraisal nor the inspection. Three documents, three jobs.

So your action step is simple, and it is about the calendar. The day your contract is signed, do two things in parallel: let the lender order the appraisal immediately, and book your own inspection for the first open morning inside your inspection period. Do not wait for one to finish before starting the other, and do not skip the inspection because V A already looked at the house. V A looked at it for V A. Nobody has looked at it for you yet.

The full written guide comparing the V A appraisal and a home inspection is in the V A Loan Knowledge Center at military realty florida dot com.

This is education, not lending advice. A V A approved lender confirms your exact numbers.

Call or text nine zero four, three zero nine, zero six zero nine.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell to get notifications of all our new episodes. Thanks for listening.

VA Playbook 27: The VA Appraised It, So It's Fine

Listen to this episode on Spotify

The V A appraised it, so the house must be fine, right? That one sentence has cost Jacksonville buyers more money than almost any other assumption in the process.

Welcome to V A Playbook, a special series from The Jacksonville Real Estate Podcast, by Military Realty of Florida. I am Mike.

Let's take the expensive assumptions one at a time. Assumption one: the V A inspected the house top to bottom. It did not. The appraisal is a value opinion plus a minimum property requirements check. The appraiser walks the property, looks for safety, soundness, and sanitation problems, and measures it against comparable sales. The appraiser does not test your systems like an inspector, does not forecast failures, and does not hand you a list of everything that will need money in the next five years.

Assumption two: if it passed the V A minimums, nothing is about to break. The minimums are a floor, not a forecast. A roof can have just enough life left to pass and still be the roof your insurance company refuses to renew. A water heater can work on appraisal day and die in August. An air conditioner can cool the house during the visit and still be living on borrowed time. Passing means the house cleared a bar. It does not mean the house is new, and it does not mean your first year will be cheap.

Assumption three: the seller said the house is V A ready, so it must be. There is no official V A ready stamp a seller can earn before your appraiser shows up. Sellers in Arlington say the house has good bones. Sellers in Nocatee say the builder warranty covers everything. Both speeches are marketing. The only opinion that matters on minimum requirements is the assigned appraiser's, and the only opinion that matters on condition is your own inspector's.

Assumption four: new construction does not need an inspection. New houses fail inspections in boring, expensive ways. Grading that sends water toward the slab. Missing insulation. Appliances and fixtures installed wrong. A punch list the builder has not finished. The warranty is a promise to fix things later. Your inspection is how you find them while you still have leverage, before closing, not after your household goods are unpacked.

Assumption five: if the appraisal worked, the insurance will work. Here in Florida, those are separate conversations, and the insurance one surprises people. An older roof the appraiser accepts can still drive your premium up or stall your binder entirely, and flood risk near the St. Johns River, Doctors Lake, or Black Creek is its own line item. Buyers who wait until the week of closing to quote insurance are the ones having a very bad Tuesday.

And assumption six: an appraised value is a promise the house is worth what you paid. The value opinion protects the loan. It is not a blessing on your negotiating, and it does not guarantee resale. You can overpay with a perfectly valid appraisal if you got emotional in a bidding war and covered the difference in cash with your eyes open. Just do it with your eyes open.

So here is your action step. Treat the appraisal and the inspection as two separate appointments with two separate jobs, on every purchase, at every age of house. And while your inspection period is open, get the homeowners insurance quote on that exact house. On a four hundred thousand dollar Jacksonville purchase, the cheapest money you will ever spend is the inspection fee and a phone call to an insurance agent in week one, not the surprise repairs and premiums you meet in month two.

The full written guide to V A appraisal versus home inspection, and the assumptions to leave behind, is in the V A Loan Knowledge Center at military realty florida dot com.

This is education, not lending advice. A V A approved lender confirms your exact numbers.

Call or text nine zero four, three zero nine, zero six zero nine.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell to get notifications of all our new episodes. Thanks for listening.

On the VA path: « The VA Appraisal Process: What Jacksonville Buyers Must Know · VA Loan Occupancy Timing »

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• VA loan knowledge center
• VA loan occupancy timing

Call (904) 309-0609.