Fannie forms: double the work between Nov. 1 and Jan. 1?

Fannie Mae will require use of the new versions of their appraisal forms beginning November 1. With plenty of time to spare you’ll have access to Appraisal XSite website content, XSellerate automated marketing campaigns and other ways to help you get on the same page with your lender clients.  You’ll both be comfortable you know which forms are necessary when, and how an assignment might differ now with the new forms.  For example, there will no longer be any such thing as a “2055 with interior.”

But complicating matters is the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) instructing its FHA roster appraisers that it forbids use of the new Fannie forms until January 1, 2006.

“FHA Roster Appraisers are instructed to continue to use the existing (pre March 2005) Fannie Mae appraisal reporting forms until the January 1, 2006 implementation date,” HUD made clear in its Mortgagee Letter 2005-34, released September 23.

The likelihood of confusion and possibility of double duty caused HUD to contact its FHA roster appraisers and tell them that use of the new forms will be optional between Nov. 1 and Jan. 1. At the same time, many lenders have applied for and received an extension from Fannie Mae pushing back the deadline by which they have to use the new forms.

As always, follow the lead of HUD and your lender clients.

In our next newsletter edition we will go into detail about what the new forms will require, how they might impact your business and how you can successfully communicate what it all means to your clients, who rely on you more than they do Fannie Mae and Mortgagee Letters to tell them what’s necessary when it comes to appraisals.  Or if they don’t, they should!

We’ll also have details shortly about the availability of new XSites content, XSellerate campaigns and other resources you can use to educate your clients and continue to position yourself as his or her vaulation expert.  Plenty of your competitors will be flying blind with the new forms, but we’ll help you be on the leading edge.  Look for information in your e-mail soon.

The full text of HUD’s Mortgagee letter 2005-34 is available by clicking here and choosing “2005 Letters” from the list on the right.