AMC Appraisals and Lima One Capital

[Salvatore Lentini]

Has anyone had problems with Lima One Capital withholding AMC appraisals? My buyer was not able to get approved by Lima because the per unit didn't meet there minimum ($50K per unit on a 6 unit property) even though Lima One knew this info when the buyer applied. Purchase agreement was for $285K on a 6 unit. It appraised for $290K and then Lima One Capital said "Sorry it's under our minimum". Buyer has a new lender that will do the loan but needs the appraisal. Since it's an AMC appraisal that was paid for by the buyer it's theirs. Lender requested it a week ago and Lima One has still not sent it. I can't even imagine why they would do this. Any ideas? Anyone else experience this?

[Robert Neely]

Our team will communicate directly with the borrower on any appraisal request. Thank you.

[Salvatore Lentini]

@Robert Neely - please message me directly and I can give you the borrowers name, full address and whatever else Lima needs.  Buyer is working through a broker.  What needs to be done to make this happen?  Because tomorrow it will be one week since it's been requested.

[Kristen L Garner]

Hi, I work with many AMC's and as soon as the appraisal comes in it is immediately available to the loan officer, processor, and entire lending team. I've never had any AMC withhold an appraisal from my team. Sometimes revisions or rebuttals can be slow, but never a withhold. I would try to speak to someone else at your lender's company....processor, branch manager, etc. Or you could find out which AMC they used and give them a call yourself. AMC's are only a middle man for the sake of compliance. They have no motivation to withhold.

Best of luck. 

[Salvatore Lentini]

@Kristen L Garner - would the new lender need to have it sent or "released" from prior lender in order for it to be considered valid?  I was buying a commercial property (personally) last year and when one local bank didn't work out (and we had already gotten the appraisal through them), when we switched to financing with another local bank the appraisal couldn't be sent from the old bank to me and then to the new bank.  The new bank said they had to get it directly from the prior bank without it "touching" my hands or from the appraisal company directly.

[Kristen L Garner]

I'm not 100% on the legality but whenever I need to send my borrower to a new lender to get the deal done I always email the new lender the appraisal document right away. Usually I ask the new lender to have their UW team review the appraisal before telling my borrower they can do the deal. Some lenders will want to order their own appraisal regardless, others will use your existing appraisal...depends on the scenario and loan product. 

[Alex Bekeza]

@Salvatore Lentini Hope you've been well sir!

In my experience, Lima One, the appraiser, and the new lender will all need to approve the transfer and the appraiser will likely charge a small fee for the transfer. The appraiser will likely already need to be on a panel of approved vendors with the new lender or the new lender will need to already be using the AMC that was involved.

I have never worked with Lima One so take this with a grain of salt as I really don't know how they operate.

However, I have originated over 400 commercial loans like the ones they offer and I can say that without exception, I as the broker had access to the appraisal as soon as it was received or within 24 hours or so (if collateral desk is first to see it and there are obvious revisions needed). In some cases, I see it before the lender (depends on who ordered it through the AMC). A few of our wholesale partners don't even want to see the file until we have one complete for UW (appraisal, title, etc).

Technically, the "client" on the appraisal is likely listed as Lima One, not the borrower, even though the lender charged the borrower a "deposit" for that expensive commercial narrative report. 

Legally, THEY MIGHT, be the only one with rights to a copy of the report.  However, like you, I can't think of any real reason why they'd care to withhold it (unless it reveals revision requests in the notes that would appear to have caused the final value to fall a hair under $50k a door).  I'm not accusing them of that! Just trying to think of possibilities.  What I can say for SURE is that many lenders have seemingly tried to price themselves out of doing these small 5-20s under $1m right now.... 

At the end of the day, it's hard to believe that they couldn't get an exception being within $2k of their minimum door value as long as compensating factors were present (strong DSCR, strong FICO, experience, etc).

Give me a ring or a message if you want some details on two or three different programs I've used for these types of small balance deals. 

[Salvatore Lentini]

@Alex Bekeza - I may be sending the buyer your way if his current broker can't make this happen. 

Lima One Capital is now saying that AMC has to send it to the borrower?? Not sure what their motive could be to make this this difficult.

It would be great if someone there could step up and fix this so I can sing their praise.  At this point I'd shout it from the rooftops!