I have my first property under contract right now and I'm set to close in mid-January. I ran into some issues with my financing a couple weeks ago. The issue came during the appraisal process when they found out the property was zoned general commercial. The loan was residential, so they halted the appraisal right there until I could get a conditional use permit for residential. I called the city weeks prior and they said the property was "grandfathered in" to allow for residential living, but the appraiser needed an official permit which would mean city inspections and improvements to get everything up to code (which would take way too long). The seller is motivated and wants to get out quickly, so I ended up switching to commercial financing to keep everything moving forward.

Everything is fine with my financing now, but the appraiser is still charging me $225 for the research and trip they took to the property. The full price of the appraisal is $650. This cancellation fee seems high to me, as they could have found out it was zoned commercial without a whole lot of research and not taken a trip to the property at all. They said this is the standard cancellation fee, although they won't send any documentation that states this. I don't have a good understanding of the appraisal process, so maybe they put in a lot of work upfront that I'm unaware of?

The $225 is not a large amount of money and it seems like it's probably in my best interest to just pay it and move on, but I wanted to get the opinions of more experienced investors. Thanks!!