To complete Fannie Mae Form 2000, the One-Unit Residential Appraisal Field Review Report, you pull the original appraisal and verified market data, drive by the subject property and every comparable, work section by section through the form to test the original appraiser’s data and conclusions against your own evidence, and finish by stating whether you agree or disagree with the original value — supporting any disagreement with alternative comparables and adjustments. The form is a quality-control instrument, not a new appraisal, but a reviewer who states a different value is held to the same development standards as the appraiser whose work is being reviewed.
What Form 2000 Is and When It’s Used
Form 2000 is the field review report lenders use to double-check an existing appraisal on a single-family home or individual condo unit. An independent review appraiser drives by the subject and each comparable cited in the original report, cross-checks the original appraiser’s data against public records and market evidence, and states whether the original value conclusion is credible. The completed form is filed alongside the original appraisal in the mortgage file.
Lenders order field reviews when something in the original report raises a question: an unusually high loan-to-value ratio, comparables that look too distant from the subject, a value that conflicts with the lender’s automated valuation models, a property in a declining or volatile market, or an unusual feature such as a commercial-use component. Field reviews also surface from the lender’s quality-control sampling of closed loans.
What to Gather Before You Start
The form is only as good as the data behind it. Before you get in the car, assemble:
- The original appraisal report, read in full — comparables, adjustments, neighborhood description, and any special conditions or extraordinary assumptions the original appraiser disclosed.
- MLS data: verified sale histories for the subject and every comparable in the original report, plus sales that closed around the same effective date but were not used. Those unused sales become your evidence if you disagree with the original comparable selection.
- Public records: assessor data, deed recordings, and zoning information to cross-check lot size, living area, year built, and land-use classification.
- Flood zone and environmental data: whether the subject sits in a FEMA flood zone or near any external influence the original report should have disclosed.
- Current market data: active listings, pending sales, and days-on-market statistics for context on whether the original neighborhood analysis holds up.
Most of the intellectual work happens here. By the time you drive out, you should already know whether the original comparables were the best available and whether the adjustments make sense. The drive is confirmation, not discovery.
Working Through the Form
Form 2000 follows a structured layout. Each section asks you to evaluate a specific piece of the original appraiser’s work and record what you found.
Subject Property and Neighborhood
The top of the form identifies the subject property, the borrower, the lender, and the original appraiser. Enter the address, legal description, and census tract exactly as they appear in the original report. If your research uncovered an error, note the correction and explain the discrepancy.
The Neighborhood section asks whether the original report accurately described the area’s market conditions, price ranges, and predominant housing characteristics. Test the original statements about neighborhood boundaries, property values, and market trend (increasing, stable, or declining) against your MLS data. If the original report called the market stable but your data shows a measurable price decline over the prior twelve months, document that.
Site and Improvements
You won’t enter the home, so your assessment of the improvements is limited to what you can observe from the street. Confirm that the exterior description in the original report — roof type, siding material, number of stories, garage configuration, apparent condition — matches what you see. If the original report says two-car attached garage and you’re looking at a one-car detached structure, that’s a factual error that can affect value.
For the site, verify lot size against public records and confirm that the original appraiser correctly identified any adverse site conditions visible from the street, such as proximity to a busy road, commercial property, or power lines.
Comparable Sales Analysis
This is the core of the review. The form asks whether the comparables selected are locationally, physically, and functionally the most similar properties available. For each comparable, verify sale price, sale date, and property characteristics against MLS and public records. Check whether any sale involved non-arm’s-length conditions — a foreclosure, a related-party transfer, or significant seller concessions — that the original appraiser failed to disclose or adjust for.
If better comparables existed at the time of the original appraisal but were not used, document them. The form provides space to present alternative sales and explain why they are superior to the ones the original appraiser chose. This is where your pre-inspection data gathering pays off.
The Exterior Drive-By
The field inspection is an exterior-only observation from the street or other public vantage point.1Fannie Mae. Appraisers and Property Underwriting You do not enter the home, step onto the property, or knock on the door. The purpose is to verify that the property exists as described and to identify external conditions the original appraiser missed or misrepresented.
Drive by the subject first, then each comparable sale cited in the original report. At every stop, confirm the location, note general condition and characteristics visible from the street, and take photographs. Pay attention to differences between what the original report describes and what you actually see. A comparable described as “average condition” that clearly shows deferred maintenance, or a subject with an addition not reflected in the original sketch, are the kinds of discrepancies that matter.
Driving the comparables also lets you verify their proximity to the subject. If the original appraiser placed a comparable “in the subject’s neighborhood” but it sits across a highway in a noticeably different area, that weakens the selection and belongs in your report.
Stating Agreement or Disagreement With the Value
After integrating your field observations with the market data, Form 2000 asks whether you agree or disagree with the original appraiser’s value conclusion.
If you agree, check the box and briefly explain why the original report’s methodology and data support a credible value. Agreement doesn’t mean you found zero issues. Minor discrepancies that don’t materially affect value can be noted without changing the conclusion.
Disagreement is a bigger step. When the original value is not credible, explain exactly why — which comparables were poorly chosen, which adjustments were unsupported, which property characteristics were misrepresented. Then develop your own opinion of market value supported by comparable sales you’ve verified. The form provides space to present those alternative comparables with adjustments, effectively building a mini-appraisal inside the review.
Developing your own value opinion invokes additional professional standards. Under USPAP Standard 3, a review appraiser who states a value conclusion must also comply with the development standards that apply to any appraisal. Your value needs the same analytical rigor as the original report, not less. A reviewer who tosses out a different number without supporting it carries the same professional liability as any appraiser who files an unsupported value.
Delivering the Completed Review
Form 2000 is not submitted through Fannie Mae’s Uniform Collateral Data Portal.2Fannie Mae. FAQs – Uniform Collateral Data Portal Deliver the completed field review directly to the lender or appraisal management company that ordered it, typically through whatever secure file-transfer method they specify. The lender keeps both the original appraisal and your field review in the mortgage file. If the lender relies on your value rather than the original appraiser’s, the lender reports your value at loan delivery to Fannie Mae.3Fannie Mae. Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) and the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP)
The original appraisal you reviewed still has to go through UCDP and receive a “Successful” status before the loan can be sold to Fannie Mae.3Fannie Mae. Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) and the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP) Your field review supplements the file but doesn’t replace the original report’s delivery requirement.
Most lenders expect a completed field review within five to seven business days of the assignment date. Missing that window can delay closing, so plan the field inspection carefully, especially when the comparable addresses are scattered.
Independence Rules You’re Working Under
As a field reviewer you fall under federal valuation independence requirements. Regulation Z explicitly defines “reviewing or verifying the work of a person that prepares valuations” as a valuation management function, so the same protections that cover the original appraiser cover you.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Valuation Independence No lender, loan officer, or other covered person may coerce, pressure, or instruct you to arrive at a predetermined value.
A lender can ask you to consider additional property information — an updated sale, a relevant listing, a correction to the subject’s square footage — without violating these rules. What the lender cannot do is tell you what value to reach or penalize you for reaching an inconvenient one. If a loan officer calls and says “we just need you to confirm the original value,” treat it as a red flag. Your job is to reach an independent conclusion, even when the conclusion complicates the deal.