| Valuation | Cost to you | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| AVM | Often free | Automated model; Fannie-owned loans may validate value this way with no visit |
| BPO | ~$150–200 | A licensed agent's price opinion — exterior or interior visit plus comps |
| Appraisal | ~$300–600 | Full licensed appraisal; most rigorous and most influenceable by documentation |
Treat it like a mini-sale. Write a one-page improvements sheet — kitchen, bath, roof, HVAC, flooring, with dates and rough costs — and hand it to the visitor; improvements they don't know about are value they can't count. Pull three to five recent nearby sales of similar homes that support your number (the checker's value estimate shows the comp range). Then the basics that shift subjective condition grades: curb appeal, lights on, clutter down, repairs visibly done.
You're entitled to the figure in the written denial. Review the comps used — BPOs especially can lean on stale or mismatched sales. Dispute with better comparables, or ask whether the servicer will order a full appraisal instead (worth it when a cheap exterior BPO missed interior improvements). Or wait: at current appreciation even a few months can close a small gap, and monitoring catches the moment it does.
Check your value cushion before paying for anything — free →