How much does an appraisal cost?

bump!

Do you have a broker? S/he should know. This is way too much money, but I haven't had one done in 2 years. I think it was $500.

Thanks, nyc_sport, I think it is high, too. I just saw on elliman.com under the closing costs section that it says, "Appraisal Fee: $300-$1,500 (depending on sales price)" - based on that, perhaps the appraisal cost isn't as out of line as I originally thought, but I still wanted to hear from people what they actually paid or if the bank rolled the cost into the points or something, which would make it tax-deductible...

Augustus, sounds in the right ballpark, we just paid around $1,000

Augustus- the appraisers go off the purchase price, not fair, but welcome to NY. if you shop around you can get it for much less, depends on the lender you are going with....do you know which lender?

If you can afford a 1,700 square ft. apt. in Manhattan, you obvivously have money. Pay the appraisal fee and quit complaining.

Pres, whats with the negative vibe? Perhaps Augustus has money as you put it because he/she takes the cheaper option when offered two otherwise identical products

ukinny, thanks for the $1000 point of comparison and the defense!

As for "The_President", I was not complaining in my initial post; I was just looking to find what the going rate is. We have worked hard and definitely gotten some lucky breaks, and are thankful for all we have. Having said that, I definitely always look to find a _fair_ price (which is not necessarily always the cheapest), and watch our expenditures.

WOW I had NO idea fees had gone up that much. I'm going to have to look into going back to doing some of that.

I just paid 450. Pretty sure it was a flat rate, quoted to me before appraiser had any sqft details on the property.

Recently paid 750, also a flat rate.

Hi Augustus,

appraisal fees are down right now (along with everything else). There are appraisal management companies who keep most of the appraisal fee because the idea is to keep the mortgage broker away from the appraiser. (See hvcc) Now you have everyone making less money and things take twice as long to get done.

As for you appraisal fee, the larger and more complex the assignment, than, yes the fee is increased. If you want to be curious, ask the appraiser how much he/she is being paid for the assignment. $1200 seems a bit high though!

Thank chuckl1233, spinnaker1 and streeteasyaddict - we didn't send the payment over yet b/c we are checking with a bank (this time not a mtg broker) to find out more details.

I don't mind paying an appraiser more money for more work - a straight studio vs. a large apartment probably equals a significant difference in time from the appraiser - but just don't like overpaying. I had asked about the APR when shopping around for mortgages, but don't think that this broker included ALL the fees in the APR, so that is giving me pause.

Maybe some answers are in today's article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/business/19appraise.html?_r=1&ref=business

Also, I think I read somewhere that banks can own appraisal firms, and that banks are trying to earn way more money on what seem like incidental fees than they used to.

You can thank Cuomo for the increased cost. Ever since the HVCC was implemented ive seen the cost of appraisals go up approximately $150-$500 PER INSPECTION because of this nonsense. $1200 is pretty reasonable for a 1700sq ft apartment. A $1 mil selling price appraisal is ~$1000, your apartment is probably around 1.5Mil so $1200 seems ok.

For us, the appraisal fee depends on purchase price although I dont quite agree that is the best way to determine the fees. $395 for 500k or less, $495 for over 500k up to 1M and $800-1000 for above 1M. sunny.hong@bankofamerica.com