Appraisal Requirements for USDA

Appraisal Requirements for USDA
There are appraisal requirements and guidelines that must be followed with respect to the department of USDA.
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  • Manufactured Homes: For the 100% Financing it must be a Brand New Mobile or Manufactured Home. You can get a construction loan to purchase the home and land and build. If you want to buy a pre-owned mobile home there is a 3.5% down payment.
  • No Floodplain: Properties cannot be located in the 100-year flood plain. Prior to purchasing the home please investigate to see if the property is in a floodplain. If the home you want to buy is in a floodplain then we have other $0 down programs that are availalble as well.
  • Restricted to rural and semi-rural areas deemed by zip code and map. If you want to buy a home in an urban area we have $0 Down programs for that as well.
  • Property to be move in ready. Appraisal must pass FHA appraisal guidelines.  This is really commonsense. Must have AC, Furnace, no broken windows, no holes in the roof, you must be able to live in the home by the time of closing. You can buy a home that needs minor repairs or upgrades. You can get up to $5,000 for making minor repairs or making upgrades.
  • Acreage: One of the great things about USDA they do allow you to buy a home with more acreage than a conventional or FHA loan. Generally they like to keep it at 10 acres or less. There is no maximum acreage limit. However, the land cannot exceed more than 30% of the total appraised value. For instance, if you want to buy a home for $100,000 the land cannot be worth more than $30,000.
  • Farm & Ranch: For large acreage properties we do these as well.  If you are intersted to purchase a large farm or ranch income producing property we specilaze in these as well.
  • Well/septic: There does need to be distance of usually 100 feet from the well and septic. Also, the well and septic will also have to be inspected for sanitation.
  • No value given to a pool. If you are buying a home that a pool they will not give any value on the appraisal for the pool.  This may not matter or it may pose a problem depending on how much equity is in the home you are buying. So you can still buy the home, this is not a problem, they just wont give any value to the pool. If the home you want to buy has a pool this is not a problem we have programs that will work for this.