How to Fill Out and Submit a Reconsideration of Value (ROV) Form

A Reconsideration of Value form is a written request you submit through your mortgage lender asking the appraiser to revisit a home value you believe is wrong. There is no single national form. Your lender creates its own version, and you fill it out with identifying details about the property and appraisal, a specific description of what the appraiser got wrong, and supporting evidence such as better comparable sales or documentation of factual errors. The lender reviews the package and, if it holds up, forwards it to the appraiser for a decision.

When Filing an ROV Makes Sense

An ROV works when you can point to something concrete. The two strongest grounds are factual errors in the report (wrong square footage, a missing bathroom, an unreported finished basement or major renovation) and better comparable sales the appraiser overlooked.

It is not the right tool if you simply disagree with the number or want the value to match your purchase price. The cost of improvements does not automatically translate into equivalent market value either. Federal law prohibits pressuring an appraiser to hit a target number, but the same law explicitly permits asking an appraiser to consider additional comparables, explain their conclusions further, or correct errors.¹

Getting the Form From Your Lender

Fannie Mae requires each lender to create its own ROV form and procedures and to give you a disclosure explaining the process when your appraisal is delivered.² Contact your loan officer or the lender’s appraisal management department and ask for the ROV request form. Some lenders post it on their online portals; others email it on request.

Your lender must give you a copy of the appraisal itself either promptly after it is completed or at least three business days before closing, whichever is earlier.³ You can waive that three-day window, but doing so shortens your review time. Read the report before waiving anything.

On FHA loans, the mechanics differ. Under current FHA handbook policy, the lender’s underwriter requests the reconsideration, not the borrower directly, when the appraiser did not consider information relevant on the effective date of the appraisal.⁴ You still gather the same evidence; your loan officer decides whether to send it forward.⁵

What to Put on the Form

For conventional loans sold to Fannie Mae, a borrower-initiated ROV must include, at minimum, the following:²

Identifying details: your name, the property address, the effective date of the appraisal (the date the appraiser inspected the property), the appraiser’s name, and the date you are submitting the request.
A clear description of what is unsupported, inaccurate, or deficient in the report. Be specific. Reference particular sections or pages rather than making general complaints.
Up to five additional comparable properties or new data you believe the appraiser should have considered, along with the data source for each (for example, the MLS listing number).
A written explanation of why the new information supports a different value conclusion.

Fill each of these in fully. A form that says “the value is too low” without pointing to specific errors or specific better comps will not survive the lender’s own review.

Picking Comparable Sales That Will Hold Up

Comps are where most ROVs succeed or fail. Submit recently closed sales of properties genuinely similar to yours. Active listings and pending sales carry far less weight because no transaction has actually happened.

Focus on properties that share the key characteristics of your home: similar square footage, lot size, age, construction style, bedroom and bathroom count, and overall condition. The closer the comp is geographically, the more persuasive it is. Fannie Mae doesn’t set a hard maximum distance, but appraisers must report the exact distance in miles from the subject property, and reviewers notice when your comps are across town while the appraiser’s are around the corner.⁶

For each comparable, include the sale price, closing date, property address, and MLS number. Then explain why each one is more appropriate than a comp the appraiser used: more similar in size or condition, more recent, closer in location. Simply providing sales that closed higher is not enough. Fannie Mae caps borrower-submitted comps at five per ROV.²

Comps That Tend to Get Rejected

Properties too far from the subject home or in a clearly different neighborhood will be dismissed even if the specs look similar. Pending contracts and active listings don’t count as closed comparables. Foreclosures and short sales can be problematic when the subject is a standard sale, since distressed transactions often close below market.

Basements cause repeated confusion. Appraisers generally cannot count below-grade finished space as part of gross living area, so a comp with 2,000 above-grade square feet plus a finished basement is not equivalent to a home with 2,500 square feet above grade. If your comps appear to draw their value from basement space, expect the appraiser to discount them.

How to Submit the Package

Send the completed form and all supporting documents to your lender. Do not send anything directly to the appraiser. Federal valuation independence rules require the lender to sit between you and the appraiser.⁷ Most lenders take submissions through a secure upload portal or encrypted email; your loan officer can confirm the method.

Before uploading, check that your package contains the completed form, MLS printouts or public record documentation for each comparable, and evidence for any factual-error claims (tax records for correct square footage, contractor invoices for renovations, permit records). Missing attachments slow the process. Ask for written confirmation of receipt so you have a reference point if there are delays.

You get one attempt. Fannie Mae allows only one borrower-initiated ROV per appraisal, so assemble the strongest package you can rather than rushing an incomplete one.⁸

What Happens After You Submit

The lender reviews your submission first. A designated underwriter or appraisal subject matter expert checks that the request contains enough detail and supporting data to justify sending it to the appraiser.² If something is unclear or incomplete, the lender may come back to you before forwarding it.

Once the appraiser receives the ROV, they evaluate your evidence and issue a revised appraisal report with commentary on their conclusions, whether or not the value changes.⁸ Turnaround varies by lender and can run from a few business days to a couple of weeks. On FHA loans, the appraiser may charge an additional fee if the data you are asking them to consider was not available on the date of the original inspection, though the borrower should not be charged when the data gap was not the borrower’s fault.⁴

If the Value Doesn’t Change

When the appraiser stands by the original number, your options narrow. Under Fannie Mae’s guidelines, the borrower cannot demand a second appraisal. That decision belongs to the lender, which may order one at its own discretion if the original report has material deficiencies the appraiser refuses to correct.⁸ That is usually reserved for real quality problems, not a value disagreement.

On a purchase, you can renegotiate the price with the seller, bring extra cash to cover the gap, or walk away if your contract has an appraisal contingency. On a refinance, a low appraisal typically means the loan-to-value ratio no longer works, and you may need to accept different terms, bring cash to closing, or postpone.

VA Loans: Tidewater First, Then ROV

VA-guaranteed mortgages have a two-stage system. The first stage, the Tidewater Initiative, happens before the appraisal is finalized. When a VA appraiser determines the value will come in below the contract price, they notify the lender’s designated point of contact. The lender then has two working days to provide additional comparable sales, in a format similar to the sales grid on a standard appraisal form, along with verification that those sales actually closed.⁹ The appraiser considers that information before issuing the final Notice of Value.

If Tidewater doesn’t close the gap and the final Notice of Value still comes in low, a formal ROV can be submitted to the appropriate VA Regional Loan Center. VA ROV packages typically include up to three comparable sales that closed before the appraisal’s effective date, MLS printouts for each, a narrative explaining why those comps are more appropriate than the appraiser’s, and evidence of any factual errors. Work through your loan officer; the borrower does not file directly with the VA.

The two-day Tidewater window is tight, which is why VA lenders often ask for point-of-contact information upfront on the appraisal request form. If nobody at the lender is set up to receive the Tidewater notification, the opportunity can pass entirely.⁹

Don’t Contact the Appraiser Yourself

Federal law draws a clear line between requesting a review and pressuring an appraiser. You may ask an appraiser to consider additional information, explain their reasoning, or fix errors. Those are explicit statutory exceptions to the independence requirements.¹ What you cannot do, and what your lender cannot do, is coerce, bribe, or intimidate the appraiser into reaching a particular value.⁷

That is why the entire process runs through the lender. Calling the appraiser, emailing them, or showing up with comps in hand could create an independence problem that jeopardizes your loan. Keep every communication in the channel your lender sets up.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1639e – Appraisal Independence Requirements
2
Fannie Mae. Appraisal Quality Matters – Fannie Mae Selling Guide
3
eCFR. 12 CFR 1002.14 – Rules on Providing Appraisals and Other Valuations
4
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1
5
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mortgagee Letter 2025-08 – Rescinding Multiple Appraisal Policy Related Mortgagee Letters
6
Fannie Mae. Comparable Sales – Fannie Mae Selling Guide
7
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.42 – Valuation Independence
8
Fannie Mae. Reconsideration of Value (ROV)
9
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Circular 26-17-18