Q: How will the changes affect the quality of reports?

A: Fannie has stated that one of the reasons for the guideline changes is to increase the consistency and overall quality of the reports across vendors by creating a standardized report format and more restrictive qualification requirements. Reports completed by many larger, more experienced consultants won't exhibit a large increase in quality simply because their reports and internal policies already approximate the new Fannie Mae reporting guidelines.

Q: In what way will the schedule of the reports be affected?

A: There is some concern in the industry that the guideline changes could potentially lengthen the delivery date of a Physical Needs Assessment report due to the more restrictive qualification requirements and ensuing difficulty to staff a project. Again, the larger consulting firms will have a greater capacity to deal with these changes with minimal to no increase in schedule, as they are better positioned to train employees and have a larger, generally more qualified staff.

Q: Will the cost of the reports increase due to the new guidelines?

A: An increase in cost of a report is possible; however, the cost of a report is dependent on several factors; property size, location, occupancy type, and client and agency reporting requirements are all factors in the cost of a PNA report. The new guidelines certainly are more restrictive than the previous version, but again, many of the larger experienced vendors have already been writing their reports using internal policies close to those of the new guidelines. The largest unknown factor at this point will be the overall availability of qualified Property Evaluator Representatives. Many bigger firms already have sufficient qualified staff and will be able to complete reports using the new guidelines without much struggle and therefore an increase in cost would be minimal. After the new guidelines go into effect on February 3^rd and vendors become more acclimated to the requirements, a more definitive answer will be readily available.

Q: How do the Fannie Mae changes change how the reserve replacement costs represented in the PNA reports?

A: The new Fannie guidelines now include Estimated Useful Life (EUL) tables to be used in the formation of the reserve tables to assure consistency across vendors and reports. The EUL figures, with a few exceptions, are fairly typical to those used by more experienced vendors. Because of this, reserve amounts shouldn't exhibit large increases in reserve amount recommendations.