FHA Appraisal Requirements: A Loan Officer's Checklist
Guidelines current as of . Agencies update their rules, so check the latest guide before you rely on this post.
FHA appraisal requirements come down to two jobs. The appraiser gives an opinion of the home's market value, and the appraiser checks the home against HUD's Minimum Property Requirements, which say every FHA-insured home must be "safe, sound, and secure." In practice that means heat that works on its own, hot water, a roof with at least two years of life left, no chipped or peeling paint on a home built before 1978, safe access from a street, and no power lines over the house. The appraisal is good for 180 days, and an update can stretch it to one year.
Here's the thing. Most FHA appraisal surprises aren't really surprises. A worn-out roof, a vacant house with the utilities shut off, or a seller who bought the place two months ago all show up in public records or a five-minute call with the listing agent. So let's go through what the appraiser checks, which findings hold up a closing, and how to catch them before you order the appraisal.
Unless a link says otherwise, every rule below comes from HUD Handbook 4000.1, FHA's single family policy handbook, in the version HUD issued on August 12, 2026.
| Quick facts | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who appraises | An appraiser on the FHA Appraiser Roster |
| The standard | HUD's Minimum Property Requirements: safe, sound, and secure |
| Good for | 180 days from the appraisal's effective date |
| With an update | One year from the original effective date |
| Report forms | Fannie Mae 1004 for a house, 1073 for a condo, 1025 for two to four units, 1004C for manufactured |
| Minimum size | None for houses and condos |
| Fee | HUD doesn't set one |
| Who picks the appraiser | The lender or its appraisal management company, never a commissioned loan officer |
What does an FHA appraisal look for?
You've probably heard a borrower call the FHA appraiser "the inspector." That's not quite right, but you can see where they got it. Every appraisal gives an opinion of value. An FHA appraisal comes with a second job written into the handbook. HUD calls the appraiser "the on-site representative for the Mortgagee," and that representative checks the home against HUD's Minimum Property Requirements, or MPR. New construction answers to a stricter set called Minimum Property Standards, or MPS.
Think of the FHA appraiser as a home appraiser who moonlights as a building's fire marshal. They aren't there to grade the kitchen backsplash. They're there to make sure nothing will hurt the people living in the house and that the house will hold up for the life of the loan.
Inside, the appraiser runs the heat, flushes the toilets, runs a sample of faucets, and flips a sample of switches and outlets. They look at the roof, the foundation, and the paint, and they look into the attic and crawl space as far as is safe. They aren't required to move insulation or the seller's boxes of holiday decorations to get there. Outside, they check for safe access from a street, power lines over the house or pool, encroachments, and hazards like a large fuel tank nearby. The checklist below has the details.
Each living unit also needs a bathroom with a toilet, a sink, and a tub or shower, plus a kitchen area with a sink and a stove hookup, hot water, heat, and enough electricity for lights and appliances. And no, FHA has no minimum square footage for a house or a condo. Your borrower's 600-square-foot bungalow is welcome.
The FHA appraisal checklist
Here's the checklist in one table. Copy it into your notes, or send it to the listing agent on your next FHA offer.
| Item | What the appraiser checks | What turns into a condition |
|---|---|---|
| Roof | Material and condition, from outside or from the attic and ceilings | Less than two years of life left, or leaks. The appraisal goes subject to a roofer's inspection |
| Heating | Runs the system | Can't keep living areas at 50 degrees on its own, isn't safe, or burns a fuel that's hard to get in the area |
| Air conditioning | Runs it, if the home has it | Not required. If it's broken, the appraiser reports the cost to cure |
| Electrical | A sample of switches, fixtures, and outlets, and any visible wiring | Frayed or exposed wires, or a panel that looks too small for the house |
| Plumbing | Toilets, a sample of faucets, and the water heater | No hot water, weak pressure, leaks that cause damage, or no relief valve on the water heater |
| Paint on a home built before 1978 | Every interior and exterior surface, plus fences, sheds, and detached garages | Any cracking, scaling, chipping, peeling, or loose paint |
| Paint on a home built 1978 or later | Exterior surfaces | Peeling paint that leaves the wood or siding underneath exposed to the weather |
| Attic and crawl space | Whatever the appraiser can safely reach | Water stains, poor ventilation, a smell of mold, or no safe access when a closer look is needed |
| Foundation and basement | A visual check | Dampness, structural problems, or a sump pump that doesn't work |
| Termites | The foundation and the outside walls | Any sign of infestation or a past treatment. The appraisal goes subject to a pest inspection |
| Utilities on a vacant home | Whether they're on | Utilities off. The appraiser comes back to run the systems once they're on |
| Site | Access, power lines, pipelines, storage tanks, and encroachments | Power lines over the house or pool, a fuel tank over 1,000 gallons within 300 feet, or a private road with no recorded easement |
What's not on the list matters just as much. The handbook says cosmetic problems don't need repair, and it names them: a missing handrail that isn't a safety threat, holes in window screens, cracked window glass, worn interior paint in a home built after 1978, and a dripping faucet. It also tells appraisers not to call for replacing something that still works just because it's old. That 22-year-old water heater that still makes hot water gets to stay.
FHA appraisal conditions that hold up closing
When an FHA appraiser finds a problem that can be fixed, the appraisal comes back "subject to," which is appraiser for "this works once someone fixes a thing." Here are the conditions you'll run into, and what each one takes to clear.
Repairs
The report lists each repair, an estimated cost to cure, and photos. Whatever the appraiser suggests, the lender decides which repairs the loan requires, and it can't approve the property until those are fixed. When the appraiser comes back to confirm the work, they use Fannie Mae Form 1004D, the completion report.
What if the work can't get done before closing? Say, exterior paint in a Minnesota January. The lender can set up a repair escrow, as long as the home is "habitable and safe for occupancy" at closing. The escrow has to cover the full cost of the work, and your borrower's own labor can't count toward it.
Inspections
When a problem is beyond what the appraiser can judge, the appraisal goes subject to an inspection by someone qualified. That's a roofer for a roof near the end of its life, a pest inspector for termite evidence, and an electrician, plumber, or heating and cooling tech when a system won't run right.
A recent flip
This is the one that blindsides people, because it has nothing to do with the house. A home the seller resells 90 days or fewer after taking title isn't eligible for FHA financing at all. The clock runs from the day the seller took title to the day everyone signed your borrower's sales contract. A gorgeous flip can be ineligible on day 89.
Between 91 and 180 days, the deal can work, but if the price is double or more what the seller paid, the lender has to get a second appraisal from a different appraiser. Your borrower can't be charged for it. If the second value comes in more than 5% lower, the lender uses the lower value.
A few sellers are exempt from these limits, including someone who inherited the home, HUD selling its own foreclosures, banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, relocation companies, and builders selling a new house.
A low value
If the value comes in low, nobody gets to shop for a better number. The handbook bars the lender from ordering another appraisal "to achieve an increase in value." What the underwriter can do is ask the appraiser for a reconsideration of value, or ROV, when the appraiser didn't consider information that was relevant on the effective date, like a recent sale down the street that would have made a better comparable. HUD dropped its separate borrower-request process in Mortgagee Letter 2025-08, so the request goes through the underwriter.
How to spot FHA appraisal problems before you order
Here's the deal. You can't choose the appraiser. The handbook bars anyone paid on commission tied to closing the loan from selecting, managing, or paying the appraiser, so the lender's appraisal desk or its appraisal management company does that. Nobody can make the order or the fee depend on the value, and that includes asking the appraiser for a preliminary estimate. What you can do is clear the easy problems before the appraiser ever shows up.
Run through these before you order:
- When did the seller take title? At 90 days or fewer, FHA is out unless the seller is exempt. Between 91 and 180 days at double the seller's price or more, plan on a second appraisal.
- What year was the home built? Before 1978, look hard at the listing photos for chipped or peeling paint, inside and out, including fences, sheds, and a detached garage.
- Are the utilities on? Vacant homes, bank-owned homes, and estate sales often have them shut off. Ask the listing agent to have water, gas, and electric on for appraisal day.
- How old is the roof? Ask the listing agent, and check the photos for curling or missing shingles.
- Can the appraiser get into the attic and crawl space? Ask the seller to clear the access.
- Is the seller the owner on record? If not, the appraiser has to explain why in the report.
- What's next door and overhead? Check a satellite view for power lines over the house or pool and for big fuel tanks nearby.
- Is the home on a private road or a shared driveway? It needs a recorded easement, an ownership interest, or an HOA that owns and maintains it. FHA doesn't require a joint maintenance agreement.
- Any sign of termites or a past treatment? Ask the seller, since a past treatment also triggers a pest inspection.
The answers to the first two live in public records. Mortly pulls the deed history and the year built while the borrower is still on the phone, so you know about a 60-day flip or a 1962 paint job before you've hung up.
For the rest, a quick text to the listing agent does the trick. Feel free to copy this one:
Hi [name], my buyer is using FHA financing on [address]. Before I order the appraisal, can you confirm the utilities will be on, the attic and crawl space are easy to get to, and the seller is open to touching up any chipped or peeling paint? Also, about how old is the roof? Thanks!
How long is an FHA appraisal good for?
An FHA appraisal is good for 180 days from its effective date, which is the day the appraiser inspected the home. If the appraisal will be older than 180 days on the day the loan funds, the lender can order an update, and the updated appraisal is good for one year from the original effective date.
An update only works if all of these hold:
- An appraiser on the FHA roster does it, the original appraiser unless they're unavailable. A substitute has to agree with the original report.
- The home hasn't lost value.
- The appraiser can see the home from the street.
- The home still meets HUD's Minimum Property Requirements.
- The update happens within one year of the original effective date and before the loan funds.
Two more timing rules trip people up. An appraisal belongs to its FHA case number. A new case number needs a new appraisal, even if an appraisal from another active case is only a month old. The one exception is an appraisal from a case number that was canceled and never insured. And the appraisal's effective date can't come before the case number was assigned, except for an appraisal first ordered for a conventional or other government loan and done to FHA standards.
If your borrower switches lenders, the first lender has to transfer the appraisal within five business days of the borrower's request, once it has been paid for the appraisal. The new lender can't ask the appraiser to put its name on the report. If it finds problems with the report, it has to order a new one.
FHA appraisal vs. home inspection
An FHA appraisal isn't a home inspection, and HUD says so in capital letters. Lenders have to give homebuyers form HUD-92564-CN, For Your Protection: Get a Home Inspection, at first contact, whether that's a prequalification, a preapproval, or an application. The form says "Appraisals are NOT Home Inspections!" and that "FHA does not perform home inspections." It also tells buyers that if they find problems after closing, FHA can't lend them money for repairs or buy the house back.
Why the big warning? Because the appraisal is a minimum safety check plus a value. The appraiser stops wherever the attic or crawl space gets unsafe, doesn't move insulation, and isn't required to probe inside the electrical panel. Think of the appraisal as the vision test at the DMV and the home inspection as the full eye exam. Both look at your eyes, but only one is looking for everything.
If your borrower searches for FHA home inspection guidelines, here's the answer. FHA leaves the inspection to the buyer. Its form tells buyers to arrange one themselves and to ask the inspector for its standards of practice or a sample report. The best time to bring it up is the first call, when your borrower can still write the inspection into the purchase contract.
What does an FHA appraisal cost?
HUD doesn't set an FHA appraisal fee. The handbook makes the lender pay the appraiser at a rate that fits the local market and the size of the job, and it bars the lender from paying an appraisal management company more than is "customary and reasonable" for the area. So the price depends on the market and the property. For your number, ask your appraisal desk for its current FHA fee in that county.
The handbook does say who pays in a few special cases:
| Situation | Who pays |
|---|---|
| Second appraisal on a flip resold in 91 to 180 days | Not the borrower |
| Second appraisal because the first had serious errors the appraiser wouldn't fix | The lender |
| Reconsideration of value using data the appraiser couldn't get at the time | The appraiser may charge a fee, but the borrower doesn't pay it unless the missing data was the borrower's fault |
| The lender uses an earlier buyer's appraisal for a new buyer on the same house | The new buyer pays the appraisal fee, and the first buyer gets theirs refunded |
What to tell your borrowers
Here are a few lines you can paste into a text or an email:
- "The FHA appraiser checks the value and basic safety. It isn't a home inspection, so let's get you one of those too."
- "If the appraiser asks for a repair, that's normal. It gets fixed, the appraiser confirms it, and we keep moving."
- "Old isn't the same as broken. If the water heater works, FHA doesn't make anyone replace it just because it's old."
- "The appraisal is good for 180 days, so a short closing delay won't send us back to square one."
The FHA appraisal has a reputation for being picky, but most of it is a list you can check from your desk. Pull the deed history, find the year built, get the utilities on, and you've already cleared the conditions that cause the most trouble.