Statement on Property Inspection Waivers for Certain Purchase Transactions

Pete Bakel

202-752-2034

Fannie Mae has updated its market-leading automated mortgage underwriting system, Desktop Underwriter® (DU®), to allow property inspection waiver (PIW) offers on some purchase transactions. This update responds to market changes, allowing our lenders to offer their borrowers a choice for efficiency and cost savings by foregoing an appraisal on some lower-LTV loans, and complements Fannie Mae’s PIW for refinance transactions introduced in 2016 as part of the company’s groundbreaking Day 1 Certainty™ initiative to streamline the process of obtaining a home loan. With the updated PIW, lenders can be certain on Day 1 that they will receive representation and warranty relief on property value, condition, and marketability of a property. In addition, lenders may see a shorter origination process and loan origination costs can be reduced, making it easier for lenders to do business while simplifying the process for borrowers. Borrowers always have the choice to obtain an appraisal and lenders are not obligated to exercise a PIW offer if they have any reason to believe that a full appraisal should be provided or if the borrower wants an appraisal.

Fannie Mae continues to require and to value full appraisals on the vast majority of purchase money mortgages. Appraisals provide valuable input to our appraisal database to support Collateral Underwriter® analytics and future innovations. Collateral Underwriter uses statistical models and algorithms built on a database of over 26 million appraisals to evaluate appraisal quality and drive greater confidence in the valuation of properties securing the loans acquired by Fannie Mae.

Fannie Mae is focused on providing lenders with increased operational efficiencies that allow them to make the mortgage process easier for borrowers, and making doing business with Fannie Mae simpler and more certain.