I have been a full time residential real estate appraiser since 1987 and have many years experience.  While I feel that modernizing the appraisal process is a great idea, Fannie Mae needs to have fee appraiser voices and ideas, instead of only talking to lenders, AMC's and other entities in the real estate area, but not having actual appraiser's knowledge and ideas when it is our profession you are talking about.  The inspection part of the process is the MOST important part of the appraisal process. Some houses can look great from the outside, but be in need of many repairs that photos cannot capture.  Training someone to inspect a house does not substitute years of experience inspecting properties.  AMC's who are saying there are appraisal shortages are not telling the truth.  They continually shop around for the cheapest appraiser so that they can keep more of the fee for themselves and this takes time and has hurt appraiser's overall.  The most upsetting thing is that Fannie Mae is not having any voices of actual appraiser's , when it is our profession, it seems as though you need appraiser input.