Save time and money with an Appraisal Waiver Pre Check
As a broker, you always strive to save time and money for your clients. The appraisal process can be a major hindrance to the mortgage process, as it is time-consuming and costly. Fortunately, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) has provided a valuable tool for brokers called an appraisal waiver pre-check. This tool enables brokers to check if a property qualifies for an appraisal waiver before going under contract, simplifying the process and making it more competitive.
Transcript
Ryan Hillard: Hey everyone. Ryan Hillard here with the Forward Mortgage Group.
What is an Appraisal Waiver Pre Check?
Ryan Hillard: Today I want to talk about a great tool that we have available to us as brokers called an appraisal waiver pre check. And what this is, is pretty much exactly what the name implies. It gives us the ability to go out to the UWM site, United Wholesale Mortgage, which is one of the, one of the better lenders out there that we send a lot of loans through. They help protect us as brokers in a number of ways and help us be more efficient.
The Benefits of an Appraisal Waiver Pre Check
Ryan Hillard: One of the ways that they allow for efficiency, and there are a lot of them, is by allowing us to go out and see before we go under contract on a property that we’re looking to purchase, can we get an appraisal waiver for that? Or before we’re going to do a refinance, can we get an appraisal waiver and just make the process a little bit easier, save a little bit of money, and in the aspect of going on a purchase, makes us a little bit more competitive?
Especially if we’re up against multiple offers where maybe we can say that we don’t need the appraisal because we have this in our back pocket already, it’s really simple, and it’s the first thing that I do every time anybody says that they’re looking at a property or if they’re looking at a couple of different homes, they’re getting ready to put in an offer on a home.
How to use an Appraisal Waiver Pre Check
Ryan Hillard: What we do is just go to the site of UWM and click on their appraisal waiver precheck. I enter a property address right here and enter the city, whether it’s Denver, Littleton, Highlands Ranch… you get the idea. The state, obviously, and the zip code. Go down here, and select the transaction type, in this case, to see if it works for a purchase. I check the eligibility and let it run its thing in the background. And so we can see that the LPA, which is a Freddie Mac product, we will not get it from that. But on DU or Desktop Underwriter, which is Fannie Mae, we’ll get it if we run it through Fannie Mae. It’ll tell us the maximum loan amount that we’ll be able to qualify for in order to still get the appraisal waiver.
Appraisal Waiver Pre Check for Purchases and Refinances
Using an Appraisal Waiver Pre Check for a Purchase
Ryan Hillard: You can see why we’d want to use this tool and how it helps us be a little bit more competitive and a little bit more efficient, and everybody likes saving some money.
Right now, appraisals are probably somewhere around 600, $650, give or take. It allows us to put that money into the borrower’s pocket instead of paying another third-party fee. It helps us be a little bit more competitive with our timelines and how we compete for an offer.
Using an Appraisal Waiver Pre Check for a Refinance
Refinance Waive Appraisal
Ryan Hillard: Now, in addition to using it for a purchase, as I had mentioned, we can also use it on a refinance. So I’m just gonna keep the same property type in there for right now. And rather than purchase, I’m gonna go up and say, let’s do a rate and term refinance. And we’ll check the eligibility.
We’ll see what happens. And in this case, it actually doesn’t come out. Now that’s okay because the next thing that I would do once we decide we’re moving forward is to simultaneously run through both the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac automated underwriting systems because even though it might not come up, There’s a chance that it would still come up there.
And so we wanna just make sure that we’re exhausting all the options and possibilities of what it might look like in order to be more competitive, save a little bit of money. I can tell you that just last month, of all the loans that I did, I did three of them that actually had property inspection appraisal waivers.
Is an Appraisal Waiver Pre Check Right For You?
Ryan Hillard: So we did not require an in person appraisal on three of the loans that I did last month. Two of them were purchases, and one of them was a refinance. It made everything happen just a little bit smoother and made the customers just a little bit happier because they knew that they were saving that money. If this is a tool that’s beneficial for you, whether you’re purchasing or refinancing, I’d love to have a conversation and see if there’s a way that we can help put a little more money in your pocket as well.
Update: United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is no longer providing Appraisal Waiver Pre Checks. Reach out to inquire if available through other lenders we provide. It’s important to note that an appraisal waver pre-check, endorsed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, can be a game-changer in the realm of property sales and refinancing. Utilizing this tool, brokers can sidestep the time and cost linked to in-person appraisals, often seen as a hurdle in the mortgage process. By using this appraisal waiver pre-check, brokers can ascertain if a property is eligible for an appraisal waiver and, consequently, fulfill appraisal waiver requirements without the need for a traditional appraisal. This tool holds the potential to pivot the sales price favorably, especially when pitted against competing offers. Employing an appraisal waiver or a property inspection waiver can expedite the process, enhance competitiveness, and translate into substantial savings for the client. Whether for a purchase or refinance, this approach can truly be a win-win for all parties involved.
