The buyer, in almost every financed purchase: it is a lender fee that appears on the loan estimate and is charged either to a card when the report is ordered or on the settlement statement at closing, and the buyer receives a copy by federal right even if the sale never closes.
Nothing in a purchase contract assigns the appraisal, which is why the question comes up at all. It is settled by who wants the loan. The lender requires the appraisal, and a borrower pays the costs of getting a loan, so it lands on the buyer in the same way the credit report and the flood certification do.
Why it falls on the buyer
An appraisal is not a service to the seller and it is not a term of the sale. It is a condition of the loan. On the loan estimate it sits in the block of services the borrower cannot shop for, and it is quoted as an exact dollar figure because the lender already knows what the appraisal management company charges.
A cash buyer has no lender and therefore no appraisal unless they order one themselves, which some do to sanity-check a price, and which costs the same money for a report nobody else will read.
When you pay, and whether it comes back
Two arrangements are common. The lender collects the fee by card when the order goes out, so the management company can be paid, or the fee is deferred to closing and appears as a line on the settlement statement. Either way it is disclosed on the closing disclosure, marked as already paid where it was, so it is only charged once.
Once the appraiser has inspected and delivered, the fee is earned. A buyer who cancels after that has paid for the report and keeps it. Where the contract gives the buyer a closing cost credit, the appraisal fee is one of the costs that credit can be applied to, and that is the closest thing to a seller paying for the appraisal in a normal transaction.
The copy is a right, not a favor
Under Regulation B (12 CFR 1002.14), on any loan secured by a first lien on a dwelling the lender has to give the applicant a copy of every appraisal and other written valuation promptly on completion and no later than three business days before closing, whichever comes first, and it cannot charge for the copy itself. It also has to tell the applicant about that right within three business days of the application. The applicant can waive the three-day timing but not the copy, and where the transaction never happens the copies are still owed, no later than 30 days after the lender determines it will not close.
The copy is worth keeping. It holds the comparable sales, the measurements and the condition rating that a future buyer's appraiser will be working alongside.
The cases where somebody else pays
A seller who orders a pre-listing appraisal to set a price pays for it, and it is theirs: a buyer's lender will not use it, and showing it to buyers is a marketing choice rather than a disclosure. In a refinance the borrower pays, because there is no other party. In a divorce, an estate or a property tax appeal, whoever ordered the report pays, and none of those are usable for a mortgage.
Nevada custom does not shift the appraisal fee. What custom does settle here is the owner's title policy and the real property transfer tax under NRS chapter 375, both of which the seller usually pays in the Las Vegas valley; the appraisal stays a buyer closing cost, and it is one of the first dollars a buyer spends after an offer is accepted.
Questions people ask
Does the buyer still pay if the deal falls through?
Yes, where the appraiser has already done the work. The fee pays for the report rather than for a successful closing, and the buyer keeps the report. A fee charged before the appraiser was assigned is normally refunded when the file is cancelled.
Can the seller pay for the appraisal?
Only indirectly, through a closing cost credit written into the contract that the buyer then applies to the appraisal fee among other costs. Nothing prevents a seller agreeing to it, and nothing in the standard contract does it by default.
Do you pay for the appraisal upfront or at closing?
It depends on the lender. Many collect it by card when the order goes out; others defer it to the settlement statement. Either way it is itemized on the closing disclosure, showing whether it was paid before closing or at it.