I keep reading online about appraisers receiving warning letters from Fannie that they are using different Q or C ratings on the same property.
Of course we do change our opinions about a property. Sometimes we have new information or just re-think the property and change our opinion. Be sure to explain this in your appraisal.
You need to set up a way to use your comp database to check the Q and C ratings for any property you use in your appraisals. It should only take a few minutes. Hopefully software vendors will automate this for you. Bradford has software for this.
What happened to the appraisers who got the letters? Nothing that I heard of. But, Fannie may be putting them on a special list so their appraisals are scrutinized. Fannie has stated for awhile they would be sending warning letters.
Why is Fannie looking at Q and C ratings? Who knows why they picked these factors. Maybe because they are absolute. But, I suspect that other factors are being looked at or will be coming soon. I don’t think they would want to get into the very hot issue of GLA…
Remember, Q and C ratings are absolute, not relative. If you don’t agree with this, don’t do appraisals for Fannie Mae loans as that is in their Scope of Work.
The suggestion of “make a comment” is not realistic. A computer does not read a comment. You can do all the explaining you want on why you used a certain C rating as a listing, then talked to an appraiser when the house sold, only to find the list agent LIED and you need to now change the C rating. The computer does not care. It has already documented your C rating. How many times do you need to make the same explanation? I just take this property out of my pool of comps, even if it is a good one. It is just not worth the hassle of “the letter”. Between Fannie and FHA ,They have found a really good way to eliminate appraisers one by one from existence.