I had a strange experience two weeks ago while trying to refinance our mortgage. Credit scores were very high and not a problem, but the appraisal came in very low. Sales in our neighborhood have been from repo houses and thus very low.
We wanted to ask the apraiser if he’d considered a few energy and ADA updates we had installed in our house. Our banker said that we couldn’t question the appraisal, that we would be fined as would she.
I’ve never heard of the consumer being fined for asking questions of an appraiser that the consumer paid to do an appraisal.
Does anyone know anything about this?
1. The appraiser should not have used foreclosed or distressed sale homes if non-foreclosed homes were available for use in the appraisal.
2. Since Dodd-Frank passed, appraisers can no longer talk to the borrower about the results of an appraisal. The appraisers client is the entity that contacted the appraiser to perform the appraisal. The appraiser can only talk with their client about the appraisal results. The client is not the person who paid for the appraisal, but the person/entity creating the “contract” for the appraisal.
3. If a borrower had a question regarding the appraisal, they should go through their lender (appraiser’s client) to address those concerns and questions.
4. If the appraisal was ordered through an Appraisal Management Company (AMC), questions are to be directed from the lender to the AMC (appraiser’s client).
Hope that helps a little...
Your banker is full of crap.
We had a similar issue a couple years back. Credit scores over 800 but the house was under the value I needed it to be at to qualify for refinance. We went to another bank this past year and got it no problem. Question the appraisal. If you feel it is wrong, fight it.
These rules are much needed. The liberals stripped away all these rules and literally anyone could get a mortgage without any proof of employment or anything. It was absolutely insane. Talk to a mortgage broker about just how bad things got and thank retards like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
Anyone crying about big government and big brother because of this has their head up their ass. It SHOULD be hard to get a mortgage. You SHOULD have to prove employment and the fact that you can pay the mortgage. Simple as that.
BTW...I forget to add....
The consumer cannot be fined for trying to question the appraisal. The lender will likely not be fined for questioning the appraisal.
This is a smoke screen set up by someone who does not understand Frank-Dodd or USPAP (uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.) USPAP also clearly defines who the appraisers client is, and it is in line with the client in my first post.