What does it mean when a lender skips the appraisal?
It means the loan’s automated underwriting decided an appraisal report wasn’t required, and your lender chose to use that offer.
Fannie Mae calls it value acceptance. Its Selling Guide says that for certain loan casefiles, its Desktop Underwriter system offers value acceptance, and in that case an appraisal is not required. Freddie Mac calls its version ACE, for automated collateral evaluation. Freddie’s Guide says that for certain Loan Product Advisor loans, the lender may receive the option to accept an ACE offer and originate the loan without an appraisal.
On a purchase, Freddie Mac uses your price. Its Guide says that when the lender accepts an ACE offer, Freddie accepts the purchase price as the value on a purchase, and its ACE page tells lenders to enter the purchase price for a purchase.
Freddie Mac describes ACE as an automated assessment built on its models along with historical data and public records.
On the Fannie Mae side, the Selling Guide says that when the lender exercises value acceptance, Fannie accepts the value estimate the lender submitted as the value of the property. That’s a term between your lender and the company buying your loan. It isn’t an opinion written for you about what the house is worth.
Which homes and loans can get a waiver offer?
The rules differ by company, and not every file gets an offer.
Fannie Mae value acceptance
Fannie Mae’s value acceptance section and its section on value acceptance plus property data each list these, among others, as ineligible:
- two- to four-unit properties
- co-op units and manufactured homes
- transactions using gifts of equity
The FAQs below cover the price limit and homes that are still being built.
Freddie Mac ACE
Freddie Mac’s Guide allows ACE on a purchase loan at up to a 90% loan-to-value ratio. Freddie’s Loan Product Advisor messages for its 2025 expansion describe the same 90% ceiling for ACE, up from 80%, and its February 2025 bulletin made the expanded eligibility available for submissions on or after February 24, 2025.
The Guide applies that ceiling to both the loan-to-value and total loan-to-value ratios, and on an ACE purchase the value is your price. So if your loans add up to more than 90% of the price, a purchase loan sold to Freddie Mac falls outside that limit. Run your own numbers before you assume a waiver is in play.
Either way, the offer isn’t something you request. It shows up in the lender’s underwriting results or it doesn’t.
If you’re using a VA loan, everything above is about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules, so ask your lender how the valuation works for your loan type. My post on a VA appraisal that comes in below the price covers that side.
What does a waived appraisal not tell you about the house?
It doesn’t give you a report on the home’s condition. That job still belongs to your inspection.
Your right to inspect comes from your contract. Paragraph 7A of the TREC resale contract lets you have the property inspected by inspectors you select who are licensed by TREC or otherwise permitted by law, and TREC’s Farm and Ranch Contract has the same language. That paragraph doesn’t mention the lender’s appraisal at all.
There’s also a middle option. Freddie Mac’s ACE+ PDR adds an on-site visit by a trained data collector who collects more information about the property instead of an appraisal report. Fannie Mae has a version called value acceptance plus property data, and its warranty table shows that with that version, the lender does warrant the home’s condition and property eligibility.
With my inspection and appraisal background, I look at it this way. A waiver saves you a step on the loan side, but it shouldn’t shorten your due diligence on the house. Start with my list of common New Braunfels inspection problems. If the house has an irrigation system, my sprinkler system checks cover what to ask, and my post on separate termite inspections covers wood-destroying insects. None of those questions go away because the loan skipped an appraisal.
When your inspection report comes back, read it with your contract dates in front of you. Sort out which items you’ll raise with the seller and which ones to bring to your loan officer. If something in the report worries you, ask the loan officer whether it changes how they’ll handle the valuation, and get the answer before your option period ends.
How does a waiver change the Texas appraisal addendum?
It raises a question worth settling early, because the addendum is written around an appraisal.
TREC’s Addendum Concerning Right to Terminate Due to Lender’s Appraisal, No. 49-1, is built around the appraisal your lender gets. TREC’s form page describes it as covering a contingency based on the appraisal performed by the lender and the termination rights or waiver that go with it, and the form’s own choices each turn on that appraisal.
If your lender closes on ACE, there won’t be an appraisal at all. Freddie Mac’s Guide lists a loan for which an appraisal has been obtained as ineligible for ACE, and its ACE FAQ says a loan loses ACE eligibility if an appraisal report is obtained before delivery. So ask your agent and a real estate attorney how the addendum you signed works if no appraisal is ever ordered, before your deadline arrives.
The addendum also points back to the Third Party Financing Addendum. Form 49-1 refers to your right to terminate under Paragraph 2B of that addendum when property approval isn’t obtained because of the appraisal, and Paragraph 2B of the Third Party Financing Addendum names the appraisal among the lender’s underwriting requirements for property approval. Read both with your agent so you know which one you’re relying on.
What should you ask your lender before you say yes?
Ask early, and ask in writing. A waiver changes your timeline and your paperwork, so you want the answers before your option period runs out.
If you’d feel better with an appraisal even though a waiver is on the table, say so to your loan officer early. The FAQ below covers who makes that call. Asking the question at the start keeps it from turning into a surprise late in the file.
The timing matters. Your option period and the appraisal addendum both run on days you agreed to in the contract. The lender’s underwriting runs on its own clock. If those two clocks don’t line up, you can end up past a deadline before you know whether an appraisal is coming. Get the lender’s answer first, then look at your contract dates with your agent.
- Is a waiver likely on this file? Ask after the first underwriting run, not at the closing table.
- Which system and which program? Fannie Mae value acceptance, Freddie Mac ACE or a version with an on-site data collector.
- What fees change? If no appraisal is ordered, ask how that shows up on your Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure.
- What would make the lender order an appraisal anyway? Ask whether anything your inspection finds could change the plan.
- How does your appraisal addendum work if no appraisal happens? That one is for your agent and attorney.
Keep the answers with your contract file. A short email from the loan officer that names the program and says whether an appraisal will be ordered gives you something to point back to. If the answer changes later in underwriting, you’ll have the first one to compare against, and your agent can see right away which contract dates it touches.
If you’re comparing loan programs, my buyer closing costs checklist and the mortgage calculator help you run the numbers side by side. Then bring the lender’s answers to your contract timeline so nothing on the appraisal side surprises you after your option period.
