Appraisals

[winstondog]

I am currently shopping for a refi and plan on having several lenders "bid".  Can I purchase an appraisal on my own and use that or am I restricted to using an appraiser on the lenders "approved" list?  I know that typically the lender orders the appraisal and actually owns the report and may or may not allow use of it by another lender.

[JM-AM]

You can not use your own appraisal.

You can pay and obtain your own appraisal for your own satisfaction, but will play no part in loan decision.

While I always encourage people to do a comparison of what we offer, trying to have one Lender out do another Lender through a bid can actually cause you more headaches then its worth. You just never know what you will get.

If you use a service like LendingTree, they actually charge companies for your information and then you will receive calls from different companies that pay for your information. The line of having Banks compete for your business is just that a line. They only get your information if they pay for it, which is good for LendingTree. But your personal information is sent to anyone who participates and pays LendingTree fees.