One of the biggest reasons a deal doesn't get to the settlement table is because of lending problems. One of those main reasons for that is due to the appraisal. This is now a problem completely out of the hands of the lender themselves. Why? It's a new program that was put in place called HVCC. This was meant to take the perceived ability to "fix" appraisals out of the mix. However, this apparent good intention has had a VERY negative impact on the industry. Now a lender and realtor are to have no contact whatsoever with the appraiser and the appraiser is selected often by a management company from a pool of appraisers( often based on price bidding). This means in simple terms that you are likely to get an appraiser from out of the area (sometimes VERY out of the area) just because they underbid the job. This is causing problems with getting a true value because as we ALL know, real estate is local. Often local to the point of the neighborhood within the city. We have seen this problem especially when valuing short sales and many other deals recently. Please click the link for a fun video that helps explain this further and will give you a chance to sign a petitition if you wish so all our voices can be heard....we need this program to go away NOW!!!
http://www.hvccpetition.com/Video.aspx