Category: Appraisal Organizations

Portal Fees Disclosure & Complying With the Intent of USPAP 16

Portal Fees

Should you disclose portal fees… Appraisers, Some of you know that I have written numerous times about my viewpoint that disclosure of the ‘back end’, and sometimes 'front end' portal fees we appraisers must pay to deliver a completed report to a particular client should be disclosed. You don’t have to report the FEE, only that you had to ‘pay a fee’ to obtain the assignment. If you don’t pay the fee, you technically cannot complete the assignment. My viewpoint has always been, and will remain, that if you cannot technically ‘complete’ an assignment without paying a delivery fee, then the net...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / ASB / The Appraisal Standards Board / Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice

Track Delays Between Contract Date & Appraisal Ordered Date 26

Tracking Appraisal Delays

Help us track appraisal delays… VaCAP and your fellow colleagues need your help! As you all have probably heard, according to some, appraisals are taking too long and delaying closing. Their take on this is that there is an appraisal shortage. Some of our Network colleagues have discovered a delay in which the appraisals are being ordered. From a limited sample, an average of 21 days occurs between contract ratification and when the appraisal is ordered. The Network of State Appraiser Organizations is working hard to solve this issue, but first we need to know where the problem truly is...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Trending / VaCAP

Hybrid Reports - The Story About "Hybrid" Who Does What 11

The Story About “Hybrid” Who Does What

WHO actually fills in the subject info in ‘hybrid reports… Appraisers, This is a long message… grab a cold one and settle in! Last Wednesday, (yah, bad on me!), I sent out a message asking appraisers who have done, or are doing, the new ‘hybrid’, ‘alternative’, ‘bifurcated’ or “easy squeezie” desktop reports promoted by some AMC’s and others, what the actual process is concerning WHO actually fills in the subject info in ‘hybrid reports’. A number of appraisers took time to answer via email that afternoon. Among the responses, I actually CALLED and talked to 4 appraisers who are from different...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / The Appraisal Foundation

Clarocity May Have Gone Dark.... Have AMCs Gone Dark? 34

Have AMCs Gone Dark?

Clarocity May Have Gone Dark… VaCAP has learned from one of our members the Appraisal Management Company, Clarocity Valuation Services, may have gone dark. The VaCAP member has invoices for their services over 30 days old and Clarocity has been unresponsive to numerous emails and phone calls over the past several weeks. Additionally, new orders are being assigned through their portal, Appraisal Scope. Virginia passed a 30 day prompt payment law that went into effect July 1, 2017. The statute is very clear that an AMC must pay an appraiser within 30 days from the initial delivery of the report....

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

Who doesn't like a good BRAWL 4

Who doesn’t like a good BRAWL?

So who doesn’t like a good BRAWL? Brokers Rallying Against Whole-Tail Lenders (BRAWL) is a network of independent mortgage brokers who have joined together against unethical practices by wholesale lenders. The group has created the term “Whole-tail”, a combination of wholesale and retail for those lenders who close both wholesale and retail mortgages. The group claims that some bad wholesale lenders are using the brokers to obtain client information to solicit clients directly through the lenders own retail divisions and affiliates. “Mortgage brokers are beyond tired of various wholesale lenders acting like they’re on our team, when they’re actually just...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

State Organizations Changing the Landscape, Appraisal House Is in Order 19

Who’s for Dinner?

State Organizations & Appraisers Helping Appraisers You may have heard the expression “if you do not have a seat at the table, you are on the menu.” VaCAP can honestly state, appraisers are not on the menu. Over the past several weeks, members of the Network (NSAO), which has now grown to 28 state organizations, have been recapping the events that transpired at the meetings in Washington D.C. last month. These meetings consisted of the FHFA meeting, the NSAO meeting, the ASC meeting, and the AARO conference. Most state organizations participated and many individual appraisers attended. The support for the appraisal...

AARO / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisal Subcommittee / Appraisers News

Hacked! Are We to Rely on FNMA to Keep Our Private Tax Info Protected? 12

Is Your Private Tax Info Protected?

Even the Pentagon gets hacked! Do Consumers really KNOW how their loan application data is being handled? Having worked for IRS, I know it is against the law for any government employee to divulge specific (identifiable) taxpayer information without exceptional effort to get advance approval. There is no legal way for that personally identifiable taxpayer information to get into the public domain without the taxpayers specific written permission for it. Even inside IRS, we were required to protect the identification of the taxpayer in any case related situational discussions where we sought each others advice. We could talk about the...

AGA / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Tax Reform & Appraisers Responsibility to Verify Data - AppraisersBlogs 12

It’s All About the Details…

The National Association of Realtors is encouraging all members and citizens to contact their representatives concerning tax reform. Congress is considering many tax reforms including the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction. See their website for further details on how the middle class can be impacted. Excerpt from NAR Tax Reform Call for Action: I urge you to oppose any tax reform plan that would weaken the tax incentives for owning a home, such as the mortgage interest deduction. Additionally, please do not let a tax reform plan increase taxes on middle-class homeowners through the elimination of the state and...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / NAR / National Association of Realtors

Markets & Big Data Fool Proved Forecasting 10

I Got It Wrong…

“…after forty years of studying markets, I got it wrong…” As time goes on, the one thing that appears to be both a societal and financial markets constant, is our inability to learn from our past mistakes. Late, a couple of nights ago (10/23/17), while channel surfing, I happened on an economics program intended to explain the financial crisis of 2008. My apologies for referring to a programming without its name or network. Instead, I had to consider the person who was the primary focal point of the program: Hyman Minsky (see link to The Economist here). Before reading the...

a la mode / AGA / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisal Software

Palm Beach AMC Solicitation Blast & Appraiser's Response 16

Appraiser’s Response to Palm Beach AMC

Palm Beach AMC, thank you for your blind/bulk solicitation. Just out of curiosity, why do you think I would share that kind of personal & confidential professional information with a firm I never heard of? I don’t even know what kind of fee schedule you are used to paying? You offer no references of any kind, yet you expect I will extend credit to you for thirty days? Without exception, THAT means that you will use MY fee to pay YOUR overhead for thirty days before you even consider sending MY fee to me. Firms that do not segregate appraiser...

AGA / AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

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