Have you noticed the word “waiver” quietly disappearing from industry conversations? It’s not just a terminology update – it’s a shift in how risk and valuation are actually being approached.
Before: Lenders mostly leaned on borrower profile to measure risk. Strong credit and higher equity were the main things they looked at.
After: Value gets confirmed earlier using historical property datasets, which opens the door to a much larger share of borrowers at 90% LTV.
The Death of the Waiver
If you’ve worked in mortgage long enough, you probably remember when an Appraisal Waiver felt like a small win. For years it was basically a reward for low-risk borrowers. Strong credit, 20% down, clean file – and the GSEs might do you a favor and skip the appraisal. Fast, yes, but it was always treated like a policy exception, not the norm.
That era is officially over. Under Fannie Mae’s SEL-2025-07, the term “Appraisal Waiver” has been retired and replaced with something more intentional: Value Acceptance. The language changed, and so did the mindset behind it.
Why “Waiver” Disappeared
The GSEs aren’t skipping valuation anymore. They’re confirming property value using a historical dataset built from more than 70 million prior appraisals.
Think of it this way:
Old mindset: Trust the borrower profile and bypass the property review.
New mindset: Trust the data behind the property and accept the value.
That’s the philosophical shift driving today’s modernization conversation.
The New 90% LTV Standard
For years, the 20% equity requirement acted like a hidden speed tax. If a borrower didn’t hit that threshold, they got pushed into slower, manual appraisal workflows automatically.
Now eligibility has expanded to 90% LTV for primary residences. Required equity dropped by 10%, and suddenly a much larger share of borrowers can access digital valuation paths. Adoption has surged by more than 42% as a result, which tells you modernization isn’t a niche strategy anymore. It’s scaling into the mass market.
What Operational Changes Made This Possible?
The tech infrastructure is what made this policy shift work. The modern appraisal is now split into a hybrid workflow: a trained data collector captures property facts on-site, while automated systems and a desktop appraiser confirm value remotely.
Instead of waiting days for an appraiser to schedule and complete a full field inspection, lenders can move forward as soon as verified property data is uploaded. The data collector handles the on-site piece. The desktop appraiser reviews and confirms from their desk. Together, that cuts out the scheduling delays that used to stall files in the pipeline.
It also means underwriting decisions can start earlier, because the critical property facts arrive sooner and in a format that’s actually usable.
What’s the Impact?
For lenders, this changes what it means to be competitive. Speed isn’t just about internal efficiency anymore – it’s about whether your workflow can support 90% LTV digital paths. Lenders still running on traditional appraisal timelines risk losing deals to competitors who can close faster using data-backed valuation. Modernization is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s becoming the operational baseline.
For AMCs, the change runs even deeper. Traditional order management is turning into data orchestration. It’s not just about coordinating field appraisers anymore – AMCs are now managing hybrid workflows, overseeing property data collectors, and making sure data quality moves cleanly through digital systems. The role is shifting from logistics manager to data-quality partner, and that opens real doors for AMCs willing to lean into the technology.
Big Picture
Value Acceptance is no longer a privilege reserved for the most qualified borrowers. What used to be a narrow exception for high-equity, low-risk profiles has grown into an accessible path for a much broader segment of the market. Any borrower with 10% equity and credible property data is now eligible – and that changes the scale of what’s possible.
For lenders, more files can move through digital pipelines without the friction that traditional appraisals brought in. Decisions are backed by decades of property data, not assumptions, which gives underwriters a more reliable foundation and gives borrowers a faster path to close.
Purchase market volume keeps building, and lenders will feel it in their cycle times and their close rates. Modernization used to be a competitive advantage. It’s quickly becoming the cost of entry.
