Why can't I choose my own appraiser?

You have found the home that you want to buy. You were able to pick your Realtor. You were able to choose your mortgage lender.

So why can't you pick your own appraiser?

HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct)

This was made active in May, 2009. The idea behind HVCC is to remove any influence on the appraiser to provide a specific value. This allows a property to be appraised for what the current market condition actually is. It is not dependent on the loan amount or by how much cash out a borrower is trying to get.

The hope with this program is that it will help to stabilize the market prices of homes and eliminate more home being "under water" (owing more than what they are worth.

In the past, some appraisers were influenced by a mortgage lender lender to get a certain value to make the loan go the exact way he customer wanted it. Maybe the home was only worth $180,000. The appraiser placed a value of $200,000 to enable the borrower to get all of the cash out that they wanted.

Or a Realtor would have an appraiser place the value a bit higher to get to the contract price, even if a home was not worth it. May be it was only worth $190,000 and the contract was for $215,000. This allowed the home to be sold faster and with less objections.

Whatever the reason, it happened. Now the HVCC is trying to eliminate this from happening. By having the appraiser done by an appraiser that the Realtor and the Loan officer can't speak to, helps to ensure that the value is correct. To make sure it is in the best interest of the borrower.