Category: Trending

Didja Know... Zillow is Better than Eyes! - Discern Quality Using Photos 33

Didja Know… Zillow is Better than Eyes!

How in the heck is Zillow supposed to discern QUALITY of these homes, and then magically produce a presumed value, when there is no actual data upon which to base a decision? Maybe it’s done with smoke and mirrors, rather than eyes? Appraisers, I was busy churning out reports, and didn’t have time to send out this bit of news about Zillow earlier: Zillow is watching: New algorithm uses photos of your home to check quality and curb appeal. Zillow is now claiming “it” can discern QUALITY of a home, just by looking at various photos they obtain from various sources! They...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Is Race Baked into Big Data? Who's Regulating Big Data When It Errs? 18

Is Race Baked into Big Data?

Chicago appraiser and friend (even though she calls me “fancy pants”) writes a stellar explanation of what an appraiser actual does – and what one of the panel experts got completely wrong because he didn’t understand our role in the mortgage process: Greetings Congresswoman Waters, Chairman Clay, Ranking Member Duffy, Ranking Member Gooden, and the Members of the Housing Subcommittee: My name is Maureen Sweeney, and I am a real estate appraiser. I grew up in a real estate family and lived through the savings and loan crisis of the 1980’s, which had a profound impact on my life. I...

Snippets / Trending

Race Never Considered... Emerging Narrative of Appraisers Being Racists 75

Appraisers Don’t Use Race

Appraisers don’t use race… Race is NEVER considered during a valuation Last week in a congressional hearing on the future of the appraisal profession, some research was used to suggest appraisers are showing racial bias and essentially undervaluing black neighborhoods. I was not expecting the conversation to go that way during the hearing and I’ll admit I’m deeply concerned about the emerging narrative of appraisers being racists… In the congressional hearing a panelist talked about a study that shows black neighborhoods are devalued by $48,000 compared to otherwise similar white neighborhoods. That’s alarming and society needs to have some serious...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Political Action / Trending

Complain About a Complaint Filed - Who Can Complain About Appraisals 72

Who Can Complain About Appraisals?

Time to get on my soapbox and complain about a complaint filed against me (not a charge, but merely a complaint). I did an appraisal of a multi-family property near my office. The property owner/borrower called me to complain about the appraisal since it came in far less than she thought it should (not unusual). Clearly, I could not answer her questions since she was not the client. This upset her greatly, so she filed a complaint with the State. The complaint had no basis in substance. In fact, the complaint was that my appraisal was too low. Since neither...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

iBuying Platforms Misleading Consumers - Honesty in Real Estate Petition 19

Honesty in Real Estate

Stop unfair, deceptive, and abusive iBuying tactics. Consumers are being mislead into believing that heavily funded real estate iBuying platforms are cheaper and easier than using a Realtor. Sign and Share this petition demanding that there be clarity for consumers on these deceitful iBuying platforms. Click HERE. Summary: Real estate agents, and the buyers and sellers they have faithfully represented for decades, are under threat from a small number of technology companies looking to disrupt the real estate industry. This movement began back in 2004 when companies like Trulia and Zillow were formed, and has recently neared a tipping point...

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

Clear Capital Admitting Hybrid Inspectors Are Offering Appraisal Opinions 34

Hybrid Inspectors Offering Appraisal Opinions

Clear Capital admission: This is an admission that inspector were previously offering appraisal opinions re Q&C. There remain many other areas in hybrids that also are appraisal opinion being provided by non appraisers. I have written many blog posts here, mainly for the consumer to read and understand what is actually happening in the world of Real Estate Valuations. My blogs range from being overcharged for appraisals so the middle man (the appraisal management company or AMC) can make money, lenders still pressuring appraisers to hit a value, and now having untrained and unlicensed people perform inspections (see my last...

AGA / AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations

AMCs the Single Reason for Higher Appraisal Costs & Reduced Quality 35

A Review of the Appraisal Industry

Phil Crawford of Voice of Appraisal sent a “call to action” email to his followers early this week to recommend I provide testimony on this upcoming June 20th panel. As a result, there were hundreds of recommendations sent to the House Financial Services Committee providing why I would be a good candidate to speak on the panel. I was blown away by the support and the professionalism of the emails. I thank you all. The committee told me yesterday that I would not be on the panel but offered other ways to share our views and I was very appreciative...

Snippets / Trending

Appraiser Maureen Sweeney Makes It Clear...You Sign It, You Buy It 19

You Sign It, You Buy It

Maureen Sweeney, my friend and appraiser colleague from Chicago (who knew where the name “Chicago” originated from that I learned when I used to live there), wrote an opus about appraiser liability being created and the race to the bottom. It’s a great read. Spoiler alert: Apps don’t have any judgment, nor does their maker. There are moments in my life when I am glad to have given 12 years of my life to service to the Illinois appraisal community, and being part of the team that was in place when the Illinois AMC laws and rules were written years...

Snippets / Trending

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

Antitrust And Corelogic - On the Hot Seat - Appraisers Blogs 41

Antitrust And Corelogic

It’s not been a good couple of weeks for CoreLogic, the massive data aggregator of real estate information. It’s been no secret that Corelogic has been steadily amassing all the major real estate data sources and the top MLS platform vendor. In my industry, they purchased the market leader of appraisal software, and many of my peers became wary of some of the software changes that were initiated. CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) is one of the largest real-estate data companies in the nation with 4.5 billion records spanning more than 50 years. It operates in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. Here...

Snippets / Trending

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