Your lender orders the appraisal and the VA assigns the appraiser. Nobody on either side of the deal gets to pick. The appraiser visits the house, compares it to recent sales, and the VA issues a Notice of Value. That number is the most the VA will back.
In Comanche County the fee is $750 for a single-family house as of 2026, and the VA's standard for turning it around is eight business days.
It is not a home inspection
People mix these up. The appraiser is working for the lender and the VA. They are in the house for a short visit and they are checking the VA's list. A home inspector works for you, spends hours, and tells you everything. Get the inspection. It is money well spent.
What the appraiser checks
The VA calls them minimum property requirements. The idea is that the house has to be safe, structurally sound, and sanitary. These are the items that come up most:
- Roof. It cannot leak and it has to have life left in it.
- Paint. On a house built before 1978, peeling or chipping paint is treated as lead paint and has to be fixed. Scrape, prime, paint.
- Heat. A permanent, working heat source.
- Crawl space. Access, ventilation, and no standing water or trash.
- Wood. No active termites, dry rot, or fungus.
- Drainage. Water has to run away from the foundation.
- Electrical and plumbing. Safe and working. Well water has to be safe to drink and septic has to function.
- Structure. No ongoing settlement, no major dampness or decay.
Now put that next to Lawton. Census figures put the median year built in Lawton at 1973, with well over half the housing built before 1980. Peeling paint and a tired roof are common findings on houses that age. You can plan for them, and most get fixed before closing.
The termite inspection
The VA requires a wood-destroying insect inspection on every purchase in Oklahoma. A licensed pest company does it and writes a report. If they find active termites, the house gets treated. If they find damage, it gets repaired.
Until 2022 a VA buyer was not allowed to pay for this in most states. Now you can, and you can pay for repairs too if that is what it takes to keep the deal together. Who pays is something we negotiate.
When something gets flagged
The appraiser lists the repairs. Then it is a negotiation with the seller, same as after an inspection. The seller fixes it, or you agree to split it, or in some cases you handle it. The work has to be done and checked before closing.
This is why it pays to look for the obvious ones, like the roof and the paint, before you write an offer. I will point out what I see. If there is an obvious problem, we put the fix in the offer instead of finding out three weeks later.
When the value comes in low
Most of the time it does not. The VA's numbers for 2023 had about nine in ten purchase appraisals coming in at or above the contract price. When it does come in low, here is what you have:
- A heads-up. If the appraiser thinks the value will fall short, they are supposed to call the lender and give us a short window, about two business days, to send sales they may have missed. This is called Tidewater. I pull those sales.
- Renegotiate. The seller can drop to the appraised value.
- Pay the difference. You can bring cash to cover the gap.
- Ask for a reconsideration. The lender can send better comparable sales or point out errors.
- Walk. The VA financing supplement to the contract has an escape clause for a house that does not appraise. We will read it together before you sign.
How to make it go smoothly
- Pick a house that fits the loan. That is most of it.
- Get your home inspection early in the inspection period, so repairs get negotiated once and not twice.
- Ask the seller to have utilities on and access to the attic and crawl space clear.
- Leave room in the closing date for a repair and a re-check.
A VA appraisal has a reputation for killing deals. Most of the trouble comes from houses nobody looked at closely first.
Common questions
How much is a VA appraisal in Oklahoma?
In Comanche County the VA's fee for a single-family house is $750 as of May 2026. It runs a little higher for manufactured homes and for two to four unit properties.
What will fail a VA appraisal?
The common ones are a roof with no life left, peeling paint on a house built before 1978, no working heat, water in the crawl space, active termites or wood rot, unsafe electrical, and drainage that runs toward the foundation. Most can be repaired before closing.
What happens if the VA appraisal comes in low?
You have choices. The seller can lower the price, you can pay the difference in cash, you can ask the VA to reconsider the value with better comparable sales, or you can cancel. The VA financing supplement to the contract has an escape clause for this, and we will read it together.