How Long Does an Appraisal Take?
Sit back and relax—it could be a while
An appraisal inspection normally takes one to three hours to complete.
You’ll wait an average of a week to get your appraisal report back, but you could wait up to four weeks for results.
Things like the availability of appraisers, the market in your area, and the value of your home can affect how long your appraisal takes.
The process of buying or selling a home can sometimes feel like a hurry-up-and-wait situation, where both parties try to move things along quickly but still run into unavoidable delays for formalities. The appraisal process is often necessary and can lead to some delays. In this guide, we’ll explain how long an appraisal takes and how long you’ll have to wait for results so that you know what to expect.
How Long Does a Home Appraisal Take?
The actual appraisal inspection—the first portion of the FHA appraisal guidelines—normally takes about two hours, or anywhere from one to three hours, but you’ll then have to wait for the results. In most cases, you won’t need to be present for the appraisal inspection, and your agent or the agent for the other party will make themselves available to meet the appraiser and provide access.
Factors That Affect Appraisal Inspection Timeline
There are a few things that can speed up or slow down the appraisal inspection.
Home Size
In most cases, larger homes will take longer for your appraiser to inspect. More square footage means more systems, appliances, windows, doors, roofing, and building materials to inspect, so larger homes can push your inspection timeline up to around the three-hour mark.
If you don’t have a structure and just need a land appraisal done, the inspection is more likely to take under an hour.
Foundation Type
Homes with crawl spaces and basements will likely take longer to inspect than those on slab foundations, as there’s another layer of the home to walk through and check for condition. Structural damage can hurt a home’s appraised value and create major value swings, too, so your appraiser may spend a bit longer examining a basement or crawl space than they would in other parts of the home.
How Long Does It Take to Get an Appraisal Back?
While the appraisal inspection takes just a few hours to complete, you’ll then have to wait one to four weeks to get the appraisal report back.
Factors That Affect Appraisal Report Timeline
There are a few factors to consider if you want a more accurate estimate of how long it will take to get appraisal results.
Appraiser Availability
Your local appraisal company can’t begin its report until it does the inspection, and if there’s a shortage of available appraisers or you’re buying or selling during the summer, when appraisers tend to be the busiest, you’ll more likely wait two to four weeks for your report. Part of that time could just be waiting for the appraiser to complete their inspection, but it still adds to the timeline.
Your Local Market
Your local market plays an important role in appraisal report timelines, as well. Appraisers are busier in hot markets, and you may have to wait a few days to a week before your professional can get to your inspection.
"If the appraisal comes in under the contract price, the buyer can cover the difference, the seller can reduce the price to the appraised value, or they can meet somewhere in the middle. If the buyer is using FHA or VA financing, the only way to proceed is by dropping the purchase price to the appraised value. Buyers may also appeal the appraised value and provide their own sales comps to the appraiser."
— Robert Washington, Founder at Savvy Buyers Realty
Availability of Comparable Sales
Although appraisal and market values differ, appraisers use comparable sales to help establish a value for your home. Comparable sales, called comps, are homes in your area that are similar to your property that recently sold. If your home is unique in style, size, or condition, or the market in your area is particularly slow, appraisers may take more time to find useful comps or use slower methods to establish and verify your property value. While a lack of comps can mean more work for your professional, it shouldn’t affect your home appraisal cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mortgage underwriting is often the next step after an appraisal, and this process can take anywhere from a week to a month or more. The timeline depends on the mortgage lender’s requirements, how quickly the buyer gets the required documentation to their lender, and whether there are any issues during the underwriting process.
Unless the buyer or seller makes the offer or offer acceptance contingent on the appraisal results, the sale will move forward unaffected if the appraisal comes back lower than the offer. This essentially means the buyer is paying more than what the home is worth, but without that contingency, both parties are locked into the deal. Some buyers may try to negotiate the purchase price down to the appraisal value, but this may not be possible if there wasn’t an appraisal contingency in the offer agreement.
In most cases, no, a seller cannot negotiate after an appraisal if they signed an offer agreement. The only exception would be if there was a contingency in the offer that stated that the offer acceptance was contingent on the appraisal amount. If that’s the case, the seller can negotiate a higher sale price to match the appraised amount. If the appraised amount comes in below the sale price, both sides have to agree to negotiate, but there may be no other option since the buyer’s lender might not approve the higher amount.
