HVCC

A Failed Appraisal Experiment To End? The Home Valuation Code of Conduct

by Rich Vetstein on July 24, 2010

in Appraisals, Fannie Mae, Massachusetts Real Estate Law

We are pleased to have a new guest blogger, Jonathan Steinberg, a Certified Residential Appraiser with Abelis Appraisals which provides residential appraisals throughout Massachusetts. Jon was quoted extensively in a recent Boston Globe Magazine article on the challenges of appraising residential property. Jon is here to write about the recent overhaul of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct which revamped the residential appraisal system in the U.S.

This week Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which is one of the most radical overhauls and reforms to the banking industry since the days of the Great Depression. The bill will fortunately “sunset,” or put an end to, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, an ill-advised attempt to revamp the residential real estate appraisal system back on May 1, 2009. The HVCC impacted all Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans and has stirred up quite a bit of controversy within the real estate industry.

A Failed Experiment: The HVCC

The HVCC essentially re-wrote how lenders order appraisals. The HVCC’s goal was to remove incentives for mortgage lenders to apply pressure on appraisers to inflate values, understanding that lenders and mortgage brokers normally only get paid if a loan closes. No longer could lenders choose from their own roster of local appraisers who knew the local real estate market. Instead, the HVCC prohibited mortgage brokers from even communicating directly with appraisers, and required that appraisals be ordered through an independent Appraisal Management Company, or AMCs.

One of the biggest complaints of the HVCC and the Appraisal Management Companies is that local, reliable appraisers who had built relationships and business with mortgage companies at reasonable fees were suddenly shut out, and the new AMC appraisers frequently lacked the competency and knowledge of local markets. How could an appraiser from Burlington, Vermont come down to Winchester, MA and effectively appraise a home? Furthermore, while the HVCC may have succeeded at eliminating pressure to inflate appraised values, the common result was that an AMC could now set the market for the fees paid to the appraisers. The AMC profits by distributing appraisals who accept the lowest fees. Additionally, if for some reason the loan doesn’t go through with the first lender, consumers had to get a brand new appraisal for each lender, adding more time, and of course more cost, to the process. A further glaring conflict is that the largest national lenders have significant interest in their own, appraisal management companies. The lenders have created a profit center through the appraisal fee by passing on as little of the appraisal fee to the actual appraiser as possible.

What Remains Of The HVCC

Even with the passage of the financial overhaul bill, some of the HVCC’s skeleton remains. The new regulations still requires lenders to order appraisals and will have AMCs be prevalent in the process.  Lenders can maintain their interest in appraisal management companies, however, appraisers must now be paid a fee that is “customary and reasonable” for that market area. Whatever that means. For the homeowner, appraisals should become more portable; the new rules are supposed to ensure the portability of the appraisal report between lenders or mortgage brokerage services for consumer credit transactions secured by a lien on the principal dwelling of the consumer. The to-be-created Consumer Financial Protection Agency will have the authority to protect the consumer and assure “appraisal independence” through the issuance of new appraisal rules within 60-90 days from the date of the legislation’s enactment. The HVCC is to sunset at the time the new rules go into effect.

Many questions remain however. How will these new rules look and how they will affect this industry? Will they create transparency so the appraisal fee reflects the fee paid to the appraiser and the fee paid to the appraisal management company is itemized on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement? Will borrowers be protected by ensuring that the appraisals are not simply awarded to the lowest bidder with the fastest turn around time, regardless of competency?  Only time will tell.

Thanks Jon for the great insight. And thanks to Patrick Maddigan, Esq. of TitleHub for assistance with this post.

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The 2 Major Snags That Can Derail Your Mortgage Loan: Significant Home Repairs And A Low Appraisal

by Rich Vetstein on May 19, 2010

in Appraisals, Fannie Mae, FHA, Massachusetts Property Values, Mortgages

The mortgage lending underwriting environment has changed dramatically in the last several years. At the peak of the bubble, mortgage professionals joked that you needed only to be able to fog a mirror to get a loan. These days, even borrowers with good incomes and good credit scores can get turned down.

Much of the change is driven by the stricter underwriting standards imposed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA. There are two major issues which come up repeatedly in transactions today which can derail a borrower’s loan: (1) extensive home repairs, and (2) a low appraisal.

The house requires substantial repairs

A lot of properties on the market these days are foreclosures owned by banks, short sales, or otherwise aren’t in great repair. Further, in a buyer’s market, sellers will not hesitate to agree to a list of repairs.

Broken windows, defective appliances, roof leaks, unfinished renovations, and serious water damage can all cause problems with obtaining final lender approval of the loan. At worst, the a substantial amount of required repairs could cause a lender to bail out. At best, the lender will require a pre-closing inspection and make the loan commitment subject to the satisfactory completion of all work.

Talk to your lender before the purchase and sale agreement is signed to figure out the extent to which substantial repairs will affect the underwriting process.

The appraisal is lower than the purchase price

Occasionally during the bubble an appraiser would decide a home was worth less than the price a buyer and seller had agreed upon. But that was relatively rare. Critics accused appraisers of colluding with lenders to “hit the number” — deliver the values needed for loans to be approved.

These days, appraisals are administered is a completely different fashion. New rules – the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) – hold appraisers to higher standards and sharply limit communication between appraisers and lenders. Mortgage professionals cannot select their “hand-picked” appraiser now; there is basically a random lottery system to select the appraiser. The downside of this lottery is that the appraiser may not be very familiar with the town or neighborhood being appraised. So the appraisal may fall short of the agreed-upon selling price. Even if the first appraisal goes well, a second evaluation — known as the review appraisal and now ordered by most investors that buy home loans — may not.

Today buyers, sellers and their agents often attempt to manage the appraisal process by recommending better comparable sales available than the ones the appraiser used. As a buyer’s attorney, I always negotiate an “out” in the purchase and sale agreement for the buyer’s protection in case the appraisal comes in too “low.” If the appraisal remains under the purchase price, buyers may need to reopen negotiations with the seller or come up with a bigger down payment to make a deal work — or pay down their mortgage in order to refinance.

Have you felt the change when you have tried to get a loan?

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