What is a reconsideration of value, and when is it worth filing?
A reconsideration of value — an ROV — is a formal request asking an appraiser to look at a residential appraisal again in light of information that was wrong, missing, or never considered. Five federal financial regulators define it as a request from the financial institution to the appraiser “to reassess the report,” and that phrasing carries the detail most homeowners get wrong: in a mortgage transaction you do not send it, your lender does. Under Fannie Mae’s rules a borrower gets one ROV per appraisal and may submit up to five alternative comparable sales with it. It is worth filing when you can point to a specific, checkable error — a wrong square footage, a missed closed sale, a repair the appraiser never saw. It is not worth filing when the only argument is that the number came in under your contract price.
By Eric Duran, The Fort Real Estate | November 9, 2026
The appraisal lands three thousand dollars under your contract price, or thirty thousand, and the email arrives with no explanation attached. That is usually when this question gets typed into a search bar — at night, with a closing date two weeks out. You do have a real process available, but it works only on specific grounds, and only through a channel most people do not expect.
Only your lender can ask for one
The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board puts it about as plainly as a state agency ever puts anything: “In mortgage finance transactions, only your lender can request a reconsideration of value.”
That sentence does a lot of work. The appraiser was engaged by your lender, not by you, and appraiser independence rules exist to keep the people with money on the line from leaning on the person forming the opinion. Your path runs through your loan officer: you assemble the material, and the lender’s reviewer decides whether it is complete before it goes anywhere.
Fannie Mae requires every lender to have written policies for a borrower-initiated ROV and to give you a disclosure explaining the process when the appraisal is delivered to you — one that must state only one ROV is permitted per appraisal. If you have the appraisal, you were handed that disclosure, and it names where your material goes. The requirement applies to loans with applications dated on or after August 29, 2024.
Two limits, both straight out of the Selling Guide:
- One ROV per appraisal. Not one per week until the number moves. Spend it well.
- Up to five alternative comparable sales. Five is a cap, not a target: three genuine comparables beat five with two obvious reaches.
One hard stop: once the loan closes, a borrower-initiated ROV is no longer available.
Assembling those sales is harder in Texas than it sounds. Texas is a non-disclosure state — sale prices are not public record here, so you cannot look up what the house down the street closed for. That data lives in the MLS, so in practice your agent pulls the comparables and you supply the facts about your own house.
What actually moves the number — and what never will
Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide lets a borrower appeal when the opinion of value is unsupported, may be deficient due to unacceptable appraisal practices, or reflects prohibited discriminatory practices. The same guide draws the line from the other side: a request to change the value “must be based on material and substantive issues,” and must not be made solely because the value does not support the loan amount you wanted.
An ROV is an error-correction process, not an appeal for a better outcome.
The arguments that work look like facts:
- The square footage is wrong. The most common one, and in Fort Worth it has a local flavor — converted garages, enclosed porches, and additions that may or may not count as living area. The tests that decide whether a Fort Worth garage conversion adds square footage catch people out.
- A genuine comparable sale was missed. Not an active listing, not a pending sale — a closed sale with its data source named. Fannie Mae’s own example of what to supply is the MLS listing number.
- The condition is described wrong. A report that puts your house in original condition when the kitchen and both baths were redone two years ago is working from the wrong facts.
- Something material was never seen. A new roof, a foundation repair with an engineer’s letter, a system replaced last spring.
And the arguments that go nowhere, every time: the number came in below the contract price; a neighbor told you what their house was worth; you need a particular value for the loan to work; or an online estimate says something higher — which is its own subject, and why four different numbers all claim to be what your Fort Worth home is worth.
The federal guidance offers a useful test: a consumer may provide “specific and verifiable information” not previously available or considered. Specific and verifiable. That is a fair bar.
A disagreement about adjustments — lot size, orientation, condition grade — is a more technical argument, and the one behind why your neighbor’s home sold for more than yours. Bring it as adjustments, not as grievance.
Three doors that look like this one and are not
A complaint to the state board. TALCB licenses and regulates Texas appraisers and will act on a violation of the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. What it will not do is settle a disagreement about a number. Its own guidance is blunt: it “cannot investigate complaints solely about value,” will not provide another appraisal on your property, and “cannot order an appraiser to redo or correct an appraisal.” A complaint can discipline an appraiser; it cannot change your value or save your closing. It must be signed — anonymous complaints are not investigated — and the conduct must have occurred in the previous four years.
Your property tax protest. Different number, different agency, different calendar, and no effect on your mortgage appraisal. The Tarrant Appraisal District’s value and your lender’s appraised value are unrelated figures that share a word, which is the whole reason your TAD value is not what your Fort Worth home is worth.
An FHA borrower request — and this one has moved recently. HUD created a borrower-initiated ROV process for FHA loans in 2024, then rescinded it in Mortgagee Letter 2025-08, dated March 19, 2025 and effective immediately, restoring the earlier policy under which the underwriter, not the borrower, asks for it. If you are financing with FHA, ask your loan officer what applies to your file rather than trusting an article from 2024.
One note on weight: the interagency ROV guidance issued July 26, 2024 calls itself “supervisory guidance that does not have the force and effect of law or regulation.” Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide is what binds a lender intending to sell your loan, so aim your argument there.
While the clock is running
An ROV takes time you may not have. Fannie Mae requires lenders to set turn-time expectations with the appraiser but publishes no day count, so ask your loan officer today how long yours will run.
Your deadlines live in your own paperwork. In Texas the appraisal question sits in the financing addendum attached to your TREC contract, and the dates that matter belong to your contract rather than to any general rule. Read yours.
I am a Realtor, not an appraiser, a lender, or an attorney. What I can do is pull the closed sales that belong in the comparison, tell you whether you have a square-footage or condition argument or just a disappointing number, and keep the package tight enough that your lender’s reviewer takes it seriously. The methodology is the appraiser’s licensed work; your contract deadlines are a question for your attorney.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times can I request a reconsideration of value?
Once per appraisal. Fannie Mae permits one borrower-initiated ROV for each appraisal report, and your lender’s disclosure must say so. If it comes back unchanged you cannot demand a new appraisal — Fannie Mae places the decision whether to accept the appraiser’s conclusions with the lender.
How many comparable sales can I submit with an ROV?
Up to five. The Selling Guide caps the additional data at “not to exceed five” comparable properties and asks for each one’s data source, its own example being the MLS listing number. Fewer, stronger sales land better than filling all five slots.
Can I contact the appraiser directly about a low appraisal?
No. TALCB states that in mortgage finance transactions only your lender can request a reconsideration of value, and appraiser independence rules exist to keep interested parties from pressuring the person forming the opinion. Everything routes through your loan officer.
Will a low appraisal lower my Fort Worth property taxes?
No. Your lender’s appraisal and the Tarrant Appraisal District’s assessed value come out of separate processes, and one does not feed the other. Lowering your taxable value means protesting with the appraisal district on its own calendar.
What if I think the appraisal reflected discrimination?
Fannie Mae lists an opinion of value that reflects prohibited discriminatory practices as a valid basis for a borrower-initiated ROV, and requires lenders to report suspected violations. Raise it with your lender in writing and keep a copy of what you sent and when.
A reconsideration of value is a narrow but real tool: one request per appraisal, up to five comparable sales, and only on grounds that amount to a correctable error. If you have facts, you have a case. If you have a feeling about the number, you have a conversation with your lender about closing the gap.
If an appraisal came in low and you want someone to look at the comparables before you spend your one request, send me a text — or call 817-703-1333. Bring the report. The square footage is the first thing I check.
About Eric Duran
Eric Duran is the founder and Realtor behind The Fort Real Estate, a boutique brokerage in Fort Worth, Texas. A former firefighter and paramedic, he’s guided buyers and sellers across West Fort Worth since 2020 — from TCU, Colonial, and Tanglewood to Ridglea, Arlington Heights, and the new builds out in Aledo. He has been recognized as a Fort Worth Real Producers Top Agent in 2025 and 2026, a list ranked by MLS sales volume and limited to the top 1,000 agents in the market, and was featured in the magazine as an “Agent on the Rise” in May 2025. Reach Eric at 817-703-1333 or thefortre.com.