Jim Couture sold his three-bedroom colonial in Methuen, Mass., last spring in 10 days, for a sum within 1 percent of his asking price. Still, Couture is mad about new appraisal rules supposed to protect consumers.

Couture’s sale required two $400 appraisals, the first of which took weeks to schedule and relied on suspect comparable sales, he says, to arrive at a value roughly $30,000 less than his selling price. The second came closer to the mark, but only after blown deadlines nearly derailed the contract. “I can’t relay how stressful the whole ordeal was,” Couture said.

The rules, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which applies to loans purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, was designed by regulators to protect appraisers from undue pressure from interested parties. Faulty appraisals got a fair share of blame for the housing crisis.

Among the practices the new rules forbid:

–Providing an appraiser with an anticipated, estimated or desired value for a property.

–Withholding or threatening to withhold payment or future business from an appraiser.

–Ordering a second appraisal without a reasonable belief that the first is flawed.

Neither you nor your real estate agent nor mortgage broker can hire an appraiser anymore

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