If you have applied for a mortgage recently, you have probably found that your appraised value is lower than you hoped it would be.  If you have applied for a mortage refinance you may have found that the appraised value is lower than it needed to be for you to refinance.  If you are an appraiser, you may have found that it did not matter what level of documentation you provided, the underwriter wanted more before they would accept your appraised value.  And, if you are a mortage broker you are probably wondering why the hell you are still fighting this system.

Here is an example of what we, as mortgage brokers are going through.

Lower capacity - Everyone knows that appraisers have left the industry due to the decline in business.  You would expect that those who survived, would be a higher quality of appraiser with a track record of professionalism and excellent quality of work.  That plus $4.00 might get you a Latte!

I am finding that appraisals resulting in combined loan to values of as low as 50% &  60% are not acceptable as submitted.  Additional comparables meeting more stringent guidelines or that make the underwritere "feel good" are being requested which in turn takes away appraisal resources that could be doing other appraisals and takes away underwriter resources from looking at more risky loan applications.  It would seem that automation and technology have come far enough to allow an underwriter to request an AVM appraisal and if that value was consistent with the initial appraisal, then further documentation would no longer be needed.  If the AVM appraisal came in 10%, 20%, or 30% lower than the appraisal, then ask the appraiser to reconcile the differences - if they could not, then use then offer the AVM value for the refinance.   Instead, every appraisal submitted results in additional questions that extend the time line and restrict the capacity to complete additional refinances.  Stimulus for my ulcer!

Paraphrasing Robert DiNiro - I would like to ask the underwriting companies to look at this problem and "Analyse This" to see if they can come up with a way to stop wasting time and money, our economy can not wait for another buerocratic system to fix itself.  Or if that is not possible, explain why the underwriters that used to be able to use compensating factors no longer are able to consider 800 FICO, 12 months reserves, 60% CLTV as good enough risks to take it easier on an appraisal.