Appraisal Articles

This is the passage in question and here’s my interpretation of what this is saying.

Use of Supervisory Appraisers

Selling Guide, Part XI, Section 101.03: Use of Supervisory or Review Appraisers

Fannie Mae defines the appraiser as the individual who personally inspected the property being appraised, inspected the exterior of the comparables, performed the analysis, and prepared and signed the appraisal report as the appraiser. Fannie Mae allows an unlicensed or uncertified appraiser who works as an employee or subcontractor of a licensed or certified appraiser to perform a significant amount of the appraisal (or the entire appraisal if he or she is qualified to do so)—as long as the appraisal report is signed by a licensed or certified supervisory or review appraiser and is acceptable under state law. This policy is updated to now require that if a supervisory appraiser signs the appraisal report as the appraiser, the supervisory appraiser must have performed the inspection of the subject property.

Many appraisers with trainees are concerned that this might be interpreted to mean we have to go and physically inspect every property for FNMA, that a trainee would be the appraiser on. My interpretation is that if you are signing the report as the appraiser, you sign on the left, and of course you would have to have seen the property. But if you are the supervisory appraiser, you are not signing as the appraiser. You would be signing as the ‘supervisory appraiser’ and signing on the right, and therefore checking ‘did not see’ is appropriate and still acceptable.

Any thoughts?