Rewrite the scope before the appraiser finishes, my broker said, standing in demo dust

1960s ranch, bridge loan, rehab budget around 84k on the submitted scope. We opened the kitchen wall on day three and found knob and tube running to a subpanel that had been added at some point by someone with opinions. Electrician says 9 to 11k to do it properly.

I called my broker to ask how a change order works with this lender and instead of answering he drove out. Stood in the dust in a decent jacket and told me not to submit it as a change order. The ARV opinion hadn't come back yet and the file hadn't gone to the lender's asset manager. If I amended the scope and the budget now, it was a resubmission on a file already in motion, maybe two days. If I waited and did it as a change order after funding, it goes to the asset manager, gets a new inspection cycle, and I'm looking at three weeks with a draw I can't pull and an electrician who won't hold the slot.

Cost me two days and a slightly awkward conversation about why the number moved. He knew the difference because he's placed maybe forty loans with that shop and he knows which desk the file is sitting on at any given hour.

The part I'm still chewing on is what he said walking back to his car. Put a contingency line on the next scope, call it unforeseen conditions, ten percent, and see who takes it. Some lenders will underwrite to it. Some strike it out. Now I know which question to ask up front.