Supercharge Your AMC with Asteroom's GSE Property Data Collection

The value acceptance + property data program is a new appraisal option offered by Fannie Mae that provides lenders with a more streamlined and cost-effective way to obtain property inspection data. By participating in the program, lenders can save time and money while still obtaining reliable property data to support loan origination.

This is a new option that utilizes property data collection by a verified vendor such as Asteroom. When a lender submits a subject property to the Desktop Underwriter® (DU) they will receive a message stating the property is eligible for this program. The lender or chosen appraisal management company will submit an order to a verified vendor to arrange for property data collection. This verified vendor collects interior and exterior data on the subject property to submit via API to Fannie Mae. After this has been successfully received Fannie Mae will validate the properties eligibility and notify the lender.

With a value acceptance + property data process the appraiser isn’t involved. Instead a third party such as Asteroom will collect and provide property data to send to Fannie Mae via API. With this new process lenders will receive automatic value certainty with rep and warrant relief. A traditional appraisal, hybrid and desktop get value certainty and rep and warrant relief if the collateral underwriter score is 2.5 or lower. This process will help to bring increased efficiency and accuracy to the industry by standardizing data collection to help reduce cycle times and borrower costs.

The value acceptance offer will be considered on the transactions below:

• Loan casefiles that receive an Approve/Eligible recommendation
• One-unit properties, including condominiums
• Limited cash-out refinance transactions:
  • Principal residences and second homes up to 90% LTV/CLTV
  • Investment properties up to 75% LTV/CLTV
• Cash-out refinance transactions:
  • Principal residences up to 70% LTV/CLTV
  • Second homes and investment properties up to 60% LTV/CLTV
• Purchase transactions:
  • Principal residences and second homes up to 80% LTV/CLTV
  • Principal residences in “high-needs rural” locations identified by FHFA up to 97% LTV/105% CLTV (for borrowers at or below AMI), contingent on home property inspection
  • Recently constructed property (i.e., new construction that is 100% complete) when there is an existing “as is” prior appraisal for the subject property
• The following are not eligible for a value acceptance offer:
  • Texas 50(a)6 loans
  • When the lender has any reason to believe an appraisal is warranted
  • Construction and construction-to-permanent loans
  • Two- to four-unit properties, cooperative units, and manufactured homes
  • Transactions where either the purchase price or estimated value provided to DU® is $1,000,000 or more
  • HomeStyle® Renovation and Homestyle Energy loans
  • Leasehold properties
  • Community land trust homes or other properties with resale price restrictions, which include loan casefiles using the Affordable LTV feature
  • DU® loan casefiles that receive an ineligible recommendation
  • Loans for which rental income from the subject property is used to qualify
  • A transaction using a gift of equity

Appraisal management companies will need to help to educate their lenders on this if they have questions. They should ensure they have found a trusted provider who’s been verified by Fannie Mae to offer the property data such as Asteroom. Lenders should reach out to Fannie Mae with any questions or contact trusted industry advisors.

Fannie Mae has run value acceptance + property data as a pilot program for the past 6 years. During that time they have accumulated 61 million appraisal reports. In combination with proprietary analytics from Collateral Underwriter® (CU®) they have determined the minimum level of required collateral due diligence. Companies that provide this data such as Asteroom have strict requirements on who can collect this data and how it’s verified. We have implemented advanced proprietary technology that enables our quality control team and processes to ensure complete accuracy and compliance.

The main benefits as stated by Fannie Mae for this new option is “reduces cycle times and may reduce borrower costs, promotes safety and soundness by obtaining a current observation of the subject property, and provides operational simplicity and certainty at time of loan application.”

One downside that might occur for lenders happens after the property data has been submitted to Fannie Mae via API from Asteroom. If the borrower changes the loan parameters and pushes the loan outside of the eligibility requirements. Then lender would typically need to do a full appraisal adding significant costs and delays. However, in this instance there will be an exception allowed in the new policy. The lender will have the option to do a hybrid appraisal.

Many in the industry aware of this program prior to it’s release and now have shared that they believe this will help pave the way for a better appraisal process. There are many reasons with the top being that this process will help to bring transparent standardized data that can objectively be utilized. This will help potentially reducing bias and as stated by Fannie Mae “provide operational simplicity along with certainly at time of loan application.”