If you have done any Fannie Mae loans since May 1st, then you are certainly aware of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC). HVCC is an acronym for "havoc," which is what it certainly has caused.
For Fannie Mae loans, the broker is not allowed to choose his/her own appraiser. Even the bank is supposed to choose an unbiased appraiser or Appraisal Management Company (AMC) who will not be pressured by anyone to hit a certain property value.
There's a big petition that has been floating around to revoke this HVCC policy, and there's some proposed legislation to put an 18-month moratorium on it. But so far, from what I can tell, nothing has changed, and the moratorium bill hasn't even been voted on by congress yet. Of course there are political pressures to keep HVCC as is, including Andrew Cuomo, the Attorney General of New York who is the instigator of HVCC.
Anyway, so far I haven't heard anything positive about HVCC from realtors, loan agents and appraisers. The only ones benefitting seem to be the AMC companies. But these AMCs take a significant portion of the appraiser's fees, as much as 50% in some cases. I personally am not working with AMCs, and I've found that it's not easy to even get onto their roster of appraisers. In the past, generally speaking the appraisers who joined AMCs were the less experienced ones and/or the appraisers who couldn't or didn't want to find their own clients.
But don't forget the HVCC only applies to Fannie Mae. So FHA, VA and jumbo loans are exempt, as well as loans from a direct lender.