"What Is Value Acceptance (the Old Appraisal Waiver), and What Does It Mean for Your Offer?"

The contract on the townhome is signed, the inspection is on the calendar for Thursday, and you have already asked your agent twice when the appraiser is coming. Then the update comes in from the loan side. Fannie Mae's system has offered to accept the value on your file, the lender has taken the offer, and there will be no appraisal on this purchase.

Value acceptance is Fannie Mae's current name for what used to be called an appraisal waiver. On certain loan files, Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter offers it, and when the lender accepts the offer, no appraisal is required. It does not inspect the home or promise what the home is worth. Your offer still sets your own protections.

I'm Jeff Moran, a mortgage broker in Bluffton, South Carolina, originating since 1996, NMLS #483943, through C2 Financial Corporation, licensed in fifteen states. A file that comes back with value acceptance is usually good news, and it helps to know exactly what that news covers before you decide what to keep in your contract.

Everything below about Fannie Mae's rules comes from Fannie Mae's Selling Guide topic on value acceptance, section B4-1.4-10, dated June 3, 2026.

What is value acceptance on a Fannie Mae loan?

Conventional loans are usually run through an automated underwriting system, often called an AUS, before a person ever reviews them. Fannie Mae's system is called Desktop Underwriter, usually shortened to DU, and the post on what an AUS is and how it reads your file walks through how it works.

DU reviews your loan file, which Fannie Mae calls a loan casefile, and part of that review is deciding how the value of the home will be supported. Fannie Mae's guide says that for certain loan casefiles, DU offers value acceptance, and in that case an appraisal is not required. If the loan casefile is not eligible, DU requires an appraisal on the report form that fits the type of property.

DU sends its results on your file back to the lender in a report Fannie Mae calls the DU Underwriting Findings, usually just called the findings. Value acceptance is an offer that arrives in the findings on your particular file. DU either makes the offer on that file or requires an appraisal.

Is value acceptance the same as an appraisal waiver?

Yes, it is the same idea under a new name. For years the industry called it an appraisal waiver, and plenty of pages online still do. Fannie Mae used both names side by side for a while, and a September 2025 Selling Guide announcement took "appraisal waiver" out of the guide, so "value acceptance" is now the only term it uses.

If your agent, your title company or a friend who bought last year calls it a waiver, they are talking about the same thing. The current guide topic is titled "Value Acceptance," and that is the word you will want to search for when you are reading Fannie Mae's own rules.

Value acceptance and the home itself: what it covers and what it leaves out

An appraisal and value acceptance both answer the lender's question, which is whether the value of the home supports the loan. The questions you have as the person moving in get answered by your inspection, your agent and your contract.

Your inspection is a separate matter. An appraiser was never the person checking the roof, the electrical panel or the crawlspace in the first place. An appraisal estimates market value for the lender, and a home inspection looks at the condition of the home for you. The post on who calls for repairs, the appraiser or the home inspector covers how those two roles differ. With value acceptance, the appraisal is the piece that goes away. Your right to have the home inspected comes from your contract, and value acceptance does not touch it.

The price is still yours to judge. Value acceptance does not mean anyone has confirmed that the price you agreed to is the price the home is worth. On a purchase, the value the lender submits is your contract price itself. It means the file met Fannie Mae's standard for that offer, and the lender chose to accept it. If you want your own read on the price, your agent's comparable sales are where that conversation starts.

There is no appraisal report to read. With an appraisal, you get a copy of a written valuation with comparable sales, adjustments and photos. With value acceptance, no appraisal is done, so that report never exists. The guide to how a home appraisal is produced explains what you would have seen in one.

The lender decides whether to accept the offer

DU makes the offer, and the lender decides whether to take it. Fannie Mae's guide describes the lender as exercising the offer, and Fannie Mae accepts the value the lender submitted only when the lender does. On a purchase, that value is the contract price.

If you would like to know why the lender did or did not take the offer on your file, please ask me, and I will ask the lender and tell you what I hear back.

Can value acceptance change if the price or loan changes?

DU reads your loan casefile as it is when it is submitted. Its findings, including any value acceptance offer, describe that file.

Files change during a purchase. A price gets renegotiated after the inspection, a down payment moves, a loan amount shifts, or the loan program changes. Fannie Mae's guide says value acceptance can be used only if the final submission of the file to DU resulted in the offer. So once a lender resubmits a changed file, the new findings may carry the offer again, or DU may require an appraisal.

A value acceptance offer is good news about the file you have today. If the price or the terms change, please let your agent and me know early, so I can have the file rerun well before the dates in your contract get close.

Freddie Mac's version, called ACE

Freddie Mac has its own version, called automated collateral evaluation, or ACE. Freddie Mac's system is Loan Product Advisor rather than DU.

Section 5602.3 of Freddie Mac's guide covers ACE. It says Loan Product Advisor can make an ACE offer on certain loans, and a lender that accepts the offer can close the loan without an appraisal. Freddie Mac's system makes the offer on a particular file, and the lender decides whether to take it.

The details of Freddie Mac's version are in its own guide, and I would not assume a Fannie Mae rule carries over to it word for word.

Value acceptance and the appraisal contingency in your offer

Your offer is usually written before anyone knows whether the file will get value acceptance, so your contingencies are worth thinking through with your agent.

An appraisal contingency is a clause in your purchase contract that gives you options, on stated terms, if the appraised value comes in below the price. Value acceptance is a decision made on the loan, and it leaves the wording of your contract exactly as you and the seller signed it.

You still decide what contingencies to write. Value acceptance is not something you can count on when you write the offer, because DU makes the offer file by file. So the contingency question is the same one it always was: how much protection you want if the value comes in low, and how much cash you could bring to close if it did.

Your contract decides what happens when there is no appraisal. Purchase forms differ. Some carry a separate appraisal contingency with its own date, and others fold the appraisal into the financing contingency. Your agent or a real estate attorney in your state can tell you how your form treats a loan that closes without an appraisal. The post on keeping the financing contingency, the appraisal and the closing date on the same clock covers how those dates usually fit together.

Your inspection still happens on your schedule. If your contract gives you an inspection period, value acceptance on the loan side leaves it in place. The post on reading your home inspection report covers your next steps once the report arrives.

Steps to take on a purchase that may get value acceptance

1. You will want to write the offer as if an appraisal is coming. You and your agent can settle the appraisal contingency and how much extra cash you could bring, before anyone knows what DU will say.

2. It helps to get pre-approved on reviewed documents. A file built on documents from the start gives DU accurate information to read, and it means fewer surprises once you are under contract. Getting pre-approved, and why it is worth doing early explains what goes into it.

3. Once the findings come back, I will tell you what they say about value. That includes whether DU offered value acceptance on your file and whether the lender is accepting it, so you and your agent know whether to expect an appraiser.

4. Please keep the inspection on the calendar, and please tell me about any price change that comes out of it. A new price changes the file, and I would like to see it the day it is agreed so the file can be rerun.

Common mistakes with value acceptance

Skipping the inspection because there is no appraiser. Some clients take the news of no appraisal to mean the home has been looked over. The furnace, the roof and the plumbing are checked by the inspector you hire, on the schedule in your contract.

Using value acceptance as a reason to raise the price. No appraisal also means no appraised value to compare against. If you are thinking about offering more, your agent's comparable sales are the place to test that number.

Counting on the same answer for your next purchase. An offer on one file says nothing about the next one. A different home, a different price or a different loan is a new file, and DU looks at it fresh.

An illustration

Numbers below are made up to show the mechanism. You agree to buy a home for $420,000 with a conventional loan. Your offer keeps an appraisal contingency, and you have set aside enough cash to cover a modest shortfall if the value comes in low.

The lender runs your file through DU, and the findings include a value acceptance offer. The lender accepts it, and no appraisal is ordered. Your inspection goes ahead on Thursday as planned.

The inspector finds that the water heater is near the end of its life. You and the seller agree to lower the price to $416,000 rather than arrange a repair. That changes the file, so the lender resubmits it with the new price and the new loan amount.

From here, the new findings decide the next step. If they carry value acceptance again and the lender accepts, the purchase moves forward without an appraisal. If DU calls for an appraisal instead, one is ordered, and the appraisal contingency you kept in your offer is still there to do its job. Either way, you wrote the offer to work in both cases, so nothing about the change catches you off guard.

Your next step

Before you write an offer, you can see conventional rates and closing costs for your own scenario at the price you are considering. You will see several options on one sheet, and you can choose the option that works best for you. If you would rather talk it through, you are welcome to call me while you and your agent are drafting the offer, and we can look at the contingencies and the loan side together.

If an appraisal does come back below your price, what to do when the appraisal comes in low walks through the choices.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial, a commitment to lend, or legal advice. No letter from anyone is a loan commitment, and final approval depends on the property, the valuation and full underwriting.

Common questions

What does value acceptance mean on a mortgage?

Value acceptance is Fannie Mae's term for an offer from its Desktop Underwriter system to accept the value of the home without an appraisal. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide, section B4-1.4-10, says that for certain loan casefiles, DU offers value acceptance, and in that case an appraisal is not required. If the casefile is not eligible, DU requires an appraisal.

Is value acceptance the same thing as an appraisal waiver?

Yes. A September 2025 Fannie Mae announcement took the term "appraisal waiver" out of the Selling Guide, leaving "value acceptance" as the only name. The idea is the same, and Fannie Mae's current Selling Guide topic is titled "Value Acceptance."

Does value acceptance mean I don't need a home inspection?

No. Value acceptance replaces the lender's appraisal, and an appraisal was never a home inspection. A home inspection looks at the condition of the home for you, and your right to one comes from your purchase contract, which value acceptance does not change.

Can value acceptance change after I'm under contract?

It can. Fannie Mae's guide says value acceptance can be used only if the final submission of the file to DU resulted in the offer. If the price, the loan amount or other terms change and the lender resubmits the file, the new findings decide whether value acceptance is offered again or an appraisal is required.

Should I waive my appraisal contingency if I expect value acceptance?

That is a decision to make with your agent, based on how much protection you want if the value comes in low. DU makes a value acceptance offer file by file, so you cannot count on one when you write the offer. Your contract form decides how a loan that closes without an appraisal is treated, and your agent or a real estate attorney can read that with you.

Does Freddie Mac have value acceptance too?

Freddie Mac has its own version, called automated collateral evaluation, or ACE, which comes from its Loan Product Advisor system. Section 5602.3 of Freddie Mac's guide says the system can make an ACE offer on certain loans, and a lender that accepts it can close without an appraisal.