Written By: Karen Deis
No longer will you be able to call your local appraiser to “just run some comps”, with the promise of ordering the appraisal thru him or her in the future!
Well, I guess you could still do that...but what incentive would an appraiser have to provide you with value information? That’s one of the reasons for the HVCC in the first place.
Since most of your appraisals will be performed by Appraisal Management Companies (AMC’s) (FHA and VA are exempt from the HVCC Rules), will you have to wait for two weeks to find out if you have a value problem? And all the while, the “lock clock” is ticking! Who knows what’s going to happen if the appraisal value is challenged.
You can get a good estimate, quickly, by using a little-known report called a Restricted Appraisal.
Appraisers have been talking about it on blogs and discussion boards—it’s a way for them to provide sellers and borrowers with a preliminary value—and get paid for it! Bottom line: preliminary values will no longer be “free”.
But first a warning! I personally talked to 7 different appraisers throughout the country and only 2 of them knew what I was talking about. Some did not even know there was such a form.
