During my mortgage loan application process, I was given three or four different valuations. What do all the different valuations mean?

A valuation is an estimate of the amount of money a home may be worth. When you buy or refinance a home, your lender will get at least one and sometimes more “valuations.” No matter where the values came from, your lender is required to give you copies of each valuation that they have. Those valuations could include: An appraisal done by a licensed real estate appraiser who does a full inspection of the property. This is the most common type of valuation. A Broker Price Opinion, or “BPO,” which is an estimate of value provided by a real estate sales professional. A BPO is most commonly used to justify a home’s listing price. An Automated Valuation Model, or “AVM,” which is a computer-generated value that uses mathematical models that compare information about the house you want to buy – number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square feet, etc. – with recent sales figures and other information about the housing market in your area.