The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has adopted a new rule that should give you more access to any appraisal report, automated valuation model report, realty broker price opinion or other written estimate of the value of your home or a home you want to purchase prior to closing your loan.

This information is important because a too-high valuation might lead you to over-pay for a home you want to buy or a low appraisal might derail your plan to refinance your existing loan.

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Number five on our Top-10 most popular articles of 2012 is “How to challenge that low appraisal.”

Publish date: Feb. 17, 2012
Written by: Michele Lerner

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Over the next 10 days, we’re going to publish excerpts from our 10-most-popular articles of 2012. The list is comprised of both feature articles and blog posts. Topics range from streamline refinances, to how to challenging a low appraisal, to the growing trend of 20-year mortgages.

On behalf of HSH.com, I’d like to first thank all of our faithful readers and visitors as well as those who have just recently began following HSH.com.

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New rules designed to make mortgage loans less risky have been proposed by six federal financial regulators. This time around the target is how we value real estate when making risky loans.

Under the new proposal, lenders who want to make what are called “higher-risk mortgage loans” will be unable to value properties on the basis of broker price opinions (BPOs), automated valuations or drive-by appraisals. Generally, “higher-risk” loans have mortgage rates 1.5 percent above the average prime offer rate. Read the rest of this entry »