Author: Dave Towne

Game Over Coester! Mark Skapinetz Wins & Coester Loses in Court! 13

Coester Loses in Court!

Gosh… I’m really sad to bring you this news (sarcasm). Brian Coester Loses in Court! About 2 years ago, Georgia appraiser Mark Skapinetz, sued CoesterVMS.com, Inc. and Brian Coester for hacking his email account. The Judge ordered a summary judgement in favor of Mark Skapinetz on all counts. Excerpts from the HousingWire article: Coester will likely be forced to cough up damages as a judge ruled against him Monday in a lawsuit brought on by Mark Skapinetz, a subcontracted appraiser who worked for CoesterVMS. …a two-year legal battle between Coester and Skapinetz, who sued alleging violations of the Stored Communications...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Coester VMS

MLS System under Cyber-Attack 3

MLS System Under Cyber-Attack

Appraisers, I belong to several appraiser forums, with active participation among appraisers. On Wednesday June 12, 2019, per a forum posting, the MetroList MLS (which uses Rapattoni data) was hit from an outside cyber-attack. This MLS provides service in central California around the Sacramento region. The cyber-attack caused property data to become unavailable via web sites – to appraisers and real estate agents. The MLS posted this message: The MetroList computer network that supports Prospector MLS is down as a result of a cyber-attack. The MetroList team is working at a very fast pace to resolve and restore services as...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

What Makes a Next Generation Home? - Appraisers Blogs 5

What is a Next Generation Home?

What makes a Next Generation home? Appraisers, both FNMA and FrMAC, in concert with manufactured housing builders and the Appraisal Institute, are promoting a new type of MANUFACTURED home, and CE classes to teach appraisers about them (and typical MFH). If your appraisal service area has manufactured homes, and you appraise them, you may want to peruse this essay. The name generically applied to these new manufactured homes is Next Generation (NG). Each GSE has a different name for their LENDING program, see below. Why is this happening? Up until relatively recently, the two GSE’s didn’t purchase manufactured home loans from...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Administration / FHA

Will the Cost Approach be Required in the Redesigned UAD Forms? 50

Returning to Requiring the Cost Approach

…the Cost Approach is the most INACCURATE of the three current ‘Approaches’ we use… Appraisers, for the past few weeks, emails have been sent by a third party asking appraisers to complete a survey about the appraisal process and the current forms. I did so; you should also. But I wanted to expand on one aspect of the survey. Two separate questions, on different survey pages, related to the Cost Approach (CA). These questions wanted appraisers to state their opinion about 1) if the forms provide adequate detail to develop a CA, and 2) if it is or is not...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending / UAD / Uniform Appraisal Dataset

Commercial Appraisers Livelihood Threatened by NCUA 6

Commercial Appraisers Livelihood Threatened

Commercial appraisers may want to open this link, and read it. Your livelihood is possibly threatened by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). You may want to send a letter to the NCUA Board of Directors. Proposed Appraisal Rule Provides Relief, Clarity As part of the NCUA’s regulatory relief agenda, the Board approved a proposed rule (Part 722) to amend the agency’s real estate appraisal requirements for certain transactions. The proposed rule would provide a measure of regulatory relief and increased clarity by: Increasing the threshold for required appraisals in non-residential real estate transactions from the current $250,000 to $1 million; Reorganizing...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Political Action

Desktop Appraisals, the be-all end-all of Valuation Hype by non-Appraisers 29

Desktop Appraisals Hype

…attempts to make readers believe desktop appraisals are the be-all, end-all of property valuation… Folks, a ‘white paper‘ was put out by a company in the property title, escrow and servicing sectors, tied to mortgage lending. It does a reasonable job of explaining what Hybrid appraisals are… which they call “desktop” assignments. Then this puff piece put out by Clear Capital, attempts to make readers believe these products are the be-all, end-all of property valuation. Both of these are typical PR pieces, designed to provide information while promoting a specific brand. Interestingly, neither mention anything at all about the interest...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Beware of Appraisers Point Solicitations 65

Beware of Appraisers Point Solicitations

Appraisers, a new ‘company’ with “Appraisers Point” in their name has been marketing their services via emails across the fruited plain lately, encouraging appraisers to sign up on their web site and pay an annual fee so that ‘you’ can get on a list to be presented to, or accessed by, unnamed lenders, who might, or might not, want your service. They have a very slick looking web site that makes them look legit. Appraisers Point has no location shown on their website, so in reality, it could be anywhere in the world. The email messages show a location in...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

AMC Request to Only Appraise the Residence of the Live-Work Building 13

Is This Something You’d Do?

An AMC for a lender contacted a residential appraiser with the request that the appraiser “appraise only the second floor residence” in a two story Live-Work building within a commercial district, where SFR’s are allowed by zoning. Ground floor area of this Live-Work building is an ice cream & gift shop. The second floor is a fully finished & functional residence. Entire property is being sold. There are numerous legitimate Live-Work buildings in Seattle (and likely elsewhere also). They are properly zoned as such, are listed that way, appraised by using similar type sales – and mortgaged. Typically these are 2-3...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

Subject Street Scene Photos' Policy - Appraisers Blogs 13

Street Scene Photos of the Subject Property

Appraisers, the discussion of subject photos occurred recently on a forum I read. How many of you know the street scene “view” policy of FHA and FNMA? How many of you were trained to just take ONE photo from the very front of the subject, looking down the street in one direction or the other (without having the subject in the photo)? Is that ‘good enough’ for a lender to know the context of where the subject is on the street? If a ‘street view policy’ between agencies is more strict for one, would it be appropriate to adopt that policy for...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Administration / FHA

Assessor's Incorrect Legal Description...Property Research is Vital! 19

Advance Property Research is Vital

‘Subject to’ obtaining a correct legal description… Appraisers, an unusual situation occurred with an appraiser buddy, who asked for advice. After reviewing the details and providing input, I decided that this would be a good ‘teaching moment’ for others. See PDF for images below. Appraiser was asked to do a ‘refi’ assignment for a home that was purchased about 6 months prior by the borrower. The report was completed and turned in. Not long afterward, the appraiser received a ROV request because the borrower felt the value was too low. In the course of this process, the prior appraisal done for the purchase...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

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