Property Appraisals are primarily undertaken to establish a value for a given property - typically the "sales comparison" approach is used for residential properties. For "conventional" mortgages this is still the norm. For government-insured mortgages, however, the appraisal serves an additional purpose of identifying issues that need to be corrected per established guidelines. As an excellent example, here's a snippet from the HUD FHA website: "Required Repairs: Required repairs are limited to those repairs necessary to preserve the continued marketability of the property and to protect the health and safety of the occupants, A.K.A. the three S's: Safety: protect the health and safety of the occupants Security: protect the security of the property (security for the FHA insured mortgage.) Soundness: correct physical deficiencies or conditions affecting structural integrity" As you can see, while the scope seems to be wide the type of repairs are actually fairly narrow. It's the interpretation of phrases like "physical deficiencies" and "health and safety" by appraisers that is key. Source document: http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/ref/sfhp1-22 if you're a buyer and wondering why the home inspector you hired for $350 can't do this and get it done - no such luck. The FHA and VA rely solely on the "third party" appraiser to conduct their evaluation. As a seller, your listing agent should be well versed in potential appraisal repairs and offer suggestions on heading those off before it's two weeks to settlement... Any questions on the Lancaster PA FHA or VA home buying process feel free to reach out to me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com Thanks for watching! Please take a moment to subscribe here at http://tv.yourlancasterhome.com and pop over to our facebook page to "like" it at http://www.facebook.com/lancasterhomes Choose Jeff Geoghan for you next home sale or purchase in Lancaster! Thanks. (c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan