Mortgage brokers in Tampa Bay spend a great deal of time putting financial puzzles together. And even though every puzzle seems to be the 40,000-piece variety, the appraisal and underwriter piece is the biggest. And although every professional has his or her role in the home buying process, we do require defined guidelines for the times when our responsibilities seem to overlap.
Case in point is one of the latest edicts from Fannie Mae that addresses underwriters who may try to change the value of an appraisal; well, now they've got options and recourse that has FINALLY been defined.
So...while the lender is responsible to ensure that the appraisal gets conducted, if the lender, according to FMNA: "has concerns with any aspect of the appraisal that result in questions about the reliability of the opinion of market value" then they get to do one of three things before rendering their decision:
- Contact the original appraiser to deal with the perceived deficiencies
- Acquire a field or desk review of the original appraisal
- Get a new appraisal
At the end of the day, I'm loving this because it will keep underwriters from imposing their opinion of value. I respect their role, but underwriters are NOT appraisers. We all need to fit together as best as possible to get the deal done and clear definitions help to keep us in our respective places.
Comments (3)Subscribe to CommentsComment