If you have an attic and you’re getting a FHA loan, the appraiser is going to have to do a “head and shoulders” inspection of the attic. This means the appraiser will at minimum need to poke his/her “head and shoulders” in the attic for a quick view.
What if the attic has been sealed off? If your attic access has been covered (or the appraiser cannot access the attic due to clutter in a closet), you will have to provide access to the appraiser at some point before the loan closes. For instance, the attic above on an investor flip was previously sealed for whatever reason, so the owner had to install a scuttle after my original inspection so I could fulfill the attic inspection requirement by FHA. Obviously if a house does not have an attic due to a flat roof, an attic inspection is NOT required.
For reference, FHA loans make up about 20% of sales in Sacramento County under $200,000. While this number is currently down from about 30% one year ago, FHA loans are still happening very regularly.
What are appraisers looking for in an attic? Watch the video above (or here) for a bit more information on what appraisers are looking for during an attic inspection. I shot this video a couple of years ago.
I hope this was helpful to answer some of your questions. You can check out other FHA appraisal articles I’ve written, and definitely comment below if you’d like.
EVENT THIS WEEK: By the way, this Friday March 1, 2013, I’ll be speaking at Sacramento Association of REALTORS at 9:30am at the Industry Update meeting. We’ll have some great discussion for an hour. All Realtors and SAR affiliates are welcome. Click the thumbnail image to view the first page of my talk.
Question: Have you ever been in your attic?
If you have any questions or Sacramento home appraisal or property tax appeal needs, let’s connect by phone 916-595-3735, email, Twitter, subscribe to posts by email (or RSS) or “like” my page on Facebook
