On March 26, 2018, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) published a working paper entitled "Are Appraisal Management Companies Value-Adding? – Stylized Facts from AMC and Non-AMC Appraisals." The paper compared efficacy of appraisal management company (AMC) appraisals vs. non-AMC appraisals. The main findings were that both types of appraisals have similar levels of overvaluation, but AMC appraisals tend to be more prone to contract price confirmation and super-overvaluation (above 6 percent). Both types have the same level of mistakes, despite AMC appraisals tend to use more comparable properties in their analysis.
NAR, under its Responsible Lending Principles, supports the principles of appraiser independence that AMCs are designed to facilitate, but recognizes that alternatives to AMCs can also provide the same conformity to appraiser independence rules.