Alternative appraisal options during coronavirus disruptions

COVID-19 has created unique challenges for the home appraisal process—nationwide shelter-in-place orders and social distancing guidelines have made it difficult for appraisers to do on-site inspections, which means that turnaround times and appraisal fees have increased due to COVID-related backlog.

In March, citing the extraordinary circumstances that the country is facing with the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that they would be directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ease their standards for both property appraisals.1 Even if your institution services your portfolio of loans, you may want to consider alternative appraisal options as well.

The resulting industry solution has been the adoption and acceptance of two alternative appraisal options: desktop appraisals and hybrid appraisals. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how these alternative appraisals are being used to help the home loan process stay on track in 2020.

 

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