The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development extended the option for exterior-only appraisals through December 31, 2020 for Traditional HECM, HECM-to-HECM Refinance, Rate and Term Refinance and Simple Refinance transactions. Details were provided in Mortgagee Letter 2020-37.
Previously, the allowance for desktop and curbside appraisals was in place through May 17 per ML 2020-05 published in late March, extended through August 31 with ML 2020-20 and most recently extended through October 31 in ML 2020-28. All previous extensions applied to both exterior-only and desktop-only appraisals, but the desktop-only option will now expire on October 31.
ML 2020-37 also extends the prior guidance regarding the documentation required for the completion of repairs and has not updated references to the case binder.