These conditions are not listed to scare you, but to help you understand and erase any worries you may have.

The purpose of a repair is to correct deficiencies which may affect the health and safety of the occupants or the continued marketability of the property.

If possible, we suggest that you make any repairs to your home prior to the appraisal. This will improve the marketability and help the sale or refinance of your home go smoothly.

The most common FHA repairs:

• If the home was built prior to 1978, chipping, peeling paint must be scraped and painted. This includes interior, exterior, garages, sheds, fences, etc.
• Roof should have 2-3 years of useful life remaining and no more than 2 layers of shingles. If the home is over 10 years old, you must remove snow from a large portion of the roof for inspection by the appraiser.
• The cause of wet basements should be cured (e.g., improve drainage away from house, gutters, etc.).
• Infestation of any kind should be exterminated (e.g., insects, mice, bats, etc.).
• Damaged or inoperable plumbing, electric and heating systems should be repaired. The appraiser will check these areas.
• Structural or foundation problems must be repaired.
• Flammable storage tanks must be removed and filler cap sealed from the inside (e.g., buried oil tank).
• If there is a crawl space or attic, it will be the homeowner's responsibility to make this area accessible so that it can be thoroughly inspected.
• Broken windows, and trip hazards such as uneven pavement or holes in carpet or flooring that you could trip on.

Keep in mind that these are the most common repairs. Contact your lender with specific questions regarding your property.

Also, for properties that are vacant it is important that they are considered "livable" prior to the inspection.   The following is a simple checklist that can be used prior to the inspection, which can save you an extra trip fee by the appraiser:  

Checklist for vacant homes:

• Is the water turned on?
• Is the gas turned on?
• Is the electricity on?
• Is the air conditioning working?
• Is the heater working?
• Smoke alarms need to be working (if they don't have them they must install them)
• The water heater needs to be strapped with FHA approved wall strapping