Appraiser paid for 24 turn around time - now it's 10 days later

[Sarah Pratt]

You guys, I'm about to go crazy. I'm selling a SFH (mobile home) in the Fort Worth, Texas metroplex. We have an agent, got an offer quickly, and everything was going fine until the appraisal time. When the buyer's lender sent out the request for an appraisal, two appraisers passed over it before a 3rd one finally picked up the job. Then he said if the buyer's wanted to close on time on our house, he would do a 24 hour turn around time on writing the report but it would cost $700. The buyers said ok and he got paid his money. It is now 10 days later and the buyer's lender STILL does not have the report! We were supposed to close on the 14th. Now, we have no end date in sight.

How is it even legal or ethical to get paid up front for an appraisal and then not do your job??   It's not even my money but I hope the buyer's have some recourse on this because that's just not right!  I am so upset because we NEED to close and this appraiser is holding up the whole show and it seems like there is nothing anyone can do to make him do his job.  

Anyone have any ideas or thoughts on what on earth we can do to move this along?  The buyer's are so upset because they want our house and were ready to move in last week, we are super upset and have already moved out...everyone is upset!  

[Jeffrey H.]

Make this your real estate agent's problem.  Have them call the appraiser every day until they get it done.  It's their job to do things like this so that you don't have to worry about it.  Also on the buyer's side there should also be pressure applied since you both wanted this done quickly and paid a premium for it, and he / she is not delivering.

Assuming this appraiser is licensed (they had better be!) then you can file a complaint against them here: https://www.talcb.texas.gov/ if they continue to drag their feet.  I assume you have some sort of documentation to support that they had offered 24 hour turnaround.