Better, a digital homeownership company, recently launched Better Appraisal Guarantee, enabling mortgage applicants and prospective homebuyers to waive their appraisal contingencies and more effectively compete with cash offers.
Qualified buyers applying for home purchase mortgages can lock their terms online in approximately 15 minutes or less, and the Better Appraisal Guarantee means Better will fund the mortgage at the original terms -- including the down payment amount, APR, and monthly payment-- regardless of the final appraised value of the house.
This is a key advantage, given close to one in five successful offers in recent months have waived the appraisal contingency.
“Better’s mission is to make homeownership more accessible. Traditional appraisal policies and practices deter minorities, the LGBTQ communities, and others, from buying homes and building wealth for themselves and their families,” Better founder and CEO Vishal Garg said in a release. “We are doing this because it is the exact right thing to do for our customers. With Better Appraisal Guarantee, customers can make offers with confidence, allowing them to waive an appraisal contingency to strengthen their offer without overpaying.”
The Better Appraisal Guarantee leverages the company’s experience funding more than $30.9B in home loans and their realtor-matching and investor-matching platforms to provide speed, certainty, and savings to customers during one of life’s most significant financial transactions, the release stated.
“The technology behind the guarantee enables Better to assess where that value will likely appraise relative to the purchase price. The Better Appraisal Guarantee provides consumers with confidence in the financial impact their appraisal will have on their financing costs and required down payment. The Appraisal Guarantee is available to customers who work with both Better Mortgage and Better Real Estate,” the company said.
Founded in 2016, Better is a digital-first homeownership company whose services included mortgage, real estate, title, and homeowners insurance.