Fannie and Freddie Give Appraisers
a Workaround for COVID-19
In a move to help move purchases, sales, and refinances through the system, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued new options for appraisers. Here's a video explaining some of the workarounds:
Typically, appraisers would need to do an interior and exterior inspection of the house that's being bought or refinanced. The new rules allow for exterior only inspections so that appraisers don't need to go inside the house. The inspection is accompanied by "desktop underwriting" in which appraisers use other sources of information and databases to get more information about particular houses as well as the local area.
Here's a link to Fannie Mae's site with more information.
At Green Light Real Estate, we think this is a great idea. It is up to individual banks and credit unions as to whether they will allow this, and individual lenders may have additional requirements for this workaround. In general, this should help move transactions forward, and help prevent the inevitable backlog of appraisals and loan underwriting that will happen when the COVID-19 slowdown has ended.
We are cooperating fully with appraisers and lenders. Honestly, we spend so much of our professional lives researching real estate, and we have several databases at our disposal to help answer questions about property. We also have great relationships with the different town clerks who are keys to getting supplemental property information. The point is, we're doing whatever we can to keep peoples' transactions moving forward. Because at the end of the day, what people really want is to get into their new house, or to finalize the sale.
Be well, stay safe, and take care of the people around you.
We're getting through this together.
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