I met the Tidewater Initiative ~ I Hope I'm Going to Look Back and Say, "It was nice to meet you." I met the Tidewater Initiative in Oklahoma. You didn't know that Oklahoma has tidewater, did you? Well.. I didn't either. But I have written about our ocean front property in Oklahoma in a post entitled In The Land Before Time ~ Meet My Ocean Front in Oklahoma.
It seems that all states have the Tidewater Initiative if there are any Veterans Administration Mortgages being made there. 
The Tidewater Initiative. It has nothing to do with Tide Water except it began as a test program in the areas of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach, VA. Hence the name the Tidewater Initiative.
The Tidewater Initiative. I'm sure that most of you have already met the Tidewater Initiative. Since I've not had an appraisal come in low but one time in twelve years (I know, I know), I had not been introduced to the Tidewater Initiative.
The Tidewater Initiative. I received an email from a lender this past week:
Good morning Judi,
Per the Tidewater provision, VA Appraiser’s must notify the buyers agent to inform them of a low value appraisal and give them 2 days from 9/27 to provide additional comps **within the immediate subdivision that have sold within the past 3 months** ACTIVE LISTINGS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY IN AS THEY WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. The sales must be comparable in design and appeal and be the same number of bedrooms/bathrooms and approximately the same square footage.
If you do not provide additional comparable sales for the appraiser the appraisal will be uploaded to VA and no further consideration will be given to the value indication.
No value has been determined yet, and neither (lender name) nor the appraiser is able to discuss value until all relevant factors have been evaluated.
If you wish to send additional comparable sales to (lender name) please forward them to me in .pdf format so I may deliver them to the appraiser.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me,
signed Loan Processor
That was my introduction to the Tidewater "provision". I promptly Googled "Tidewater Provision VA appraisal Oklahoma. The very first placement on the Google Search was the VA APPRAISER TRAINING GUIDE FOR THE HOUSTON REGIONAL LOAN CENTER, providing services for veterans in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
A quick search through the document for "Tidewater provision" found nothing. Shortened it to "Tidewater" and it took me to page 36 of the 64 page document.
Tidewater Initiative. Valuations Below The Contract Price.
The Tidewater Initiative. The appraiser had determined the appraisal was going to come in below contract price. We were given two days to turn in comparables to justify the contract price. I did. I turned in three sold comparable to justify our contract price.
What happens now? Well, The Tidewater Initiative seems to have been put in place to reduce reconsideration of value. We have yet to know how it's all going to come out. BUT we did our part. We supplied comparables to the appraiser for our client.
Now we wait.
Comments(8)