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I began noticing about nine months ago; confirmed with several other short  sale Realtors and a law firm that does a lot of foreclosure defense and  short sale negotiations.  Have you also noticed Fannie has been countering  offers at +/-125% of fair market value?  I recently had one Fannie short  sale were they countered at $215K and three weeks later changed their mind,  reneged and recountered at $230K.  The buyer met both counter offers and  the FHA appraisal was ordered which came in at a fair market value of  $210K.  FANNIE REJECTED THE FHA APPRAISAL!  One of their managers told  me an FHA appraisal is only an opinion. I asked him, "than why do all the banks  and investors require an appraisal"?  Of course, he couldn't answer that  questions.  He also gave me his "BPO" comps and not a single one of them  was a comp!  What seems to be happening is Fannie is taking homes back and  putting them in their Homepath program for +/-125% of market  value.  With Homepath properties there are no appraisals and from what  I can determine Fannie arranges the financing.  So, now we have some poor  schnook who doesn't know any better buying an overpriced home, unappraised  home that will take many years before having any equity. Last  week, I had a conversation with a short sale supervisor at one of the major  lenders I work with who has a friend that paid $460K for  a Homepath home.  He had it appraised on his own and it  came in at about $400K.   Please note Fannie reported profits of $17.2  billion in 2012.  While their practices may be legal I would question their  ethics.  You can Google what I am saying and verify for yourselves, and I  would like to hear if you have had  similar experiences.