AVM's can't tell you if the 3rd floor was finished 2 weeks prior to sale or if the property sold low because of the presence of Urea Formaldehyde in the walls. AVM's are silent when a comparable utilized in their value estimate sold very low because it was a sale between family members. AVM's cannot tell you if the house is across the street from a crack house or next to a noisy metal grinding shop, or even if it backs up to a 4-lane highway. A house on one side of the street that floods every spring is treated the same as a home on higher elevation across the street by these computer programs. In short, AVM's are junk and companies telling the public they are as good as an appraisal should be sued in our opinion for misleading the public.
Fast loans mean fast commissions to many lenders.
Any company that tries to push these off as such are being less than honest. We have noted an awful lot of links to these automated valuation sites on mortgage company web pages. Appraiser Central feels that funneling a mortgage company's clients to a site that provides very innacurate valuations cannot in any way even be in the best interest of these lenders.