Every lender requires an appraisal unless the loan qualifies for an agency waiver, so the difference is the program and the file, and no lender is being pickier than another. FHA, VA, and USDA purchase loans offer no appraisal waivers at all. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac run automated underwriting systems that can waive the appraisal (Fannie now calls it value acceptance) for well-qualified borrowers, typically with substantial down payments, when the agency already has enough data on the property to be confident in the value. You cannot request one; the system either grants it on your file or it does not. How often waivers show up tracks the agencies' confidence in their housing data. When they trust values, more get issued; when values are less certain, fewer do. Some second mortgages and HELOCs use an automated valuation model (AVM) instead of a full appraisal. One related case that confuses people: FHA Streamline and VA IRRRL refinances skip the appraisal entirely, but that is a built-in feature of those programs, a separate thing from an automated waiver on a purchase. For a typical purchase loan, whether you get a waiver comes down to whether Fannie's or Freddie's system grants one for your specific file, which is why two buyers with different lenders can see different outcomes on the same kind of loan.