HVCC Agreement on Appraisal Reform To Be Delayed Up To 3 Months According to James Lockhard, FHFA

[Brian Davis]

The Associated Press is reporting that James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, told the House Financial Service Committee that the agreement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is still being worked out.

"Lockhart said the agreement will be delayed by one to three months from it's original Jan. 1 start date. While the agreement should be finalized in the coming weeks, "it's taken us longer than we expected to do it," he said."

Click here Download 92508FHFAHouseHearingStatement.pdf for his prepared statement.

[Jeffrey Maglaqui]

What are some tips on how to get a higher appraisal on my house?

If your main objective is to get a higher sales price, stick to the lower-cost easy-to-do things. This would be things like a paint job, cleaning the carpets, some light landscaping and planting, updating some of the existing fixtures, cleaning up clutter or garbage around the outside of the house, etc.

Generally the bigger remodel jobs, while they will increase your appraisal value, you will likely not recapture the costs of the upgrade. And if you are planning to sell within a year you won't get much time to enjoy the upgrades that you do. You'll see from this from the chart here: appraisals