FHA home loans are very popular and remain near the top for the total number of loans issued. As of February 15, 2010 FHA appraisals must now be ordered by non-commission lending staff or through an appraisal management company. The FHA regulation states that the amount paid to the appraiser must be at customary levels for the area with transparency for the fee garnished by the management company. This is a small step in the process toward returning the appraisal industry to a business atmosphere. A whole generation of appraisers, that are small business owners, have had their clients taken away from them by the new government regulations for appraisal ordering. Should doctors only get their patients assigned by a hospital with no controls over what the hospitals could use for their system of patient placement? What if all of the building trades now were assigned their jobs through the home improvement retailers with no guarantees that they would ever be assigned a job. History will show that the appraisers were unfairly singled out and over-regulated as a result of the housing market decline. One of the major causes of the situation still remains that the government wanted all citizens to be able to own a home and the lending industry accomodated them by extending credit to borrowers that would not have qualified in the traditional lending standards of the past.

Many sellers refuse to believe how much the value of their home may have dropped. In an upward trend it was possible to list a home above the market with the prevailing prices eventually rising to bring the price in line. In the current declining market we have seen the cases where the home was listed above the prevailing market and the subsequent price reductions still kept the price above market as values fell. Refusing to price for the current market caused them "to ride the market down" and end up selling for far less after an extended marketing period.

Check the sales and listings in your area when pricing your home. Analyze each listing history for price reductions and marketing periods to understand what prices your area will bear whether you are selling by owner or working with a Realtor. In many cases the cost of an appraisal might be the best money spent in order to "catch" the current market and not overprice or leave money on the table from underpricing.