In light of the updated appraisal and evaluation guidelines, we are most likely not going to be doing evaluations any longer - yes, they are technically allowed, but we feel the bar has been raised such that they aren't feasible for us (we may change this once we have a licensed appraiser on staff - who reports through a different channel other then lending).

As you know, TX has that 3% fee cap on home equity. With that, what the fees currently are, plus the appraisal fee, it seems we are going to have to increase our minimum loan amount just to avoid going over that 3%. Are others of you doing this as well? What minimums have you set? We were at $15,000, but we are thinking we will need to increase this to $25,000.

Last fall, we changed our whole HE pricing due to this. The less $$ we loan for, the higher the rate. If you want our rate sheet, pm me with your email address. (And $15k is our floor.)