Committment Not Issued Until Inspection Comes Back???

[Amber Forkey]

General question regarding a property I have under contract currently... 

The buyer had an inspection done on the property, then took a substancial amount of time getting back to me about the repairs he wanted done (very large list). We are about a month into the contract and the lender has not issued committment or an apraisal yet. I'm being told by the listing agent that they want to see a committment before they do any more repairs (began process already) but the lender is telling me they won't issue committment or apraisal until the inspection is clear so I'm very confused on what the best way to approach this is. Now the buyer just wants to be done with the whole thing and I'm being told that he won't be getting his deposit back. 

Is this typical in a situation similar to this, and if so, what is the best way to handle it?