Appraisal management companies do not understand the nuances of the appraisal profession, nor do they understand the challenges many rural properties bring. The Virginia Coalition of Appraiser Professionals has submitted an official comment to the ASC opposing the State wide appraisal waiver request in North Dakota. VaCAP has submitted a public comment expressing concerns over the much larger consequences in allowing such a request. A blanket waiver of appraisals up to $500,000 for a 5 year period will have a devastating impact on housing, not only in North Dakota, but across the country. We envision a snowball effect with other...
No shortage exists other than too few appraisers willing to work for drastically discounted fees that would also be willing to overlook the complexities of rural appraising in their completion time estimates. Nowhere in the ND proposal is there an assurance that in return for waivers, consumers would not be charged one dime for appraisal or appraisal related AVM fees. “Rising costs” is a deceptive claim to hide bankers desires to usurp appraisal fees for themselves. Perhaps they would call them evaluation fees to warrant charging $600 to $1,500+ for 30 second AVM analysis fees. Dear Mr. Park: RE: Appraisal...
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...
The Most Important Issue Facing The Appraisal Industry RIGHT NOW If you thought the answer was the House “modernization” panel discussion that occurred in front of the House Financial Services Committee this week you were wrong. The state of North Dakota is attempting to obtain another waiver request, not the laughably written request of last summer. Now North Dakota is requesting a waiver for five years! From the Federal Register The request seeks a waiver of appraiser credentialing requirements for appraisals for federally related transactions under $500,000 for 1-to-4 family residential real estate transactions and under $1,000,000 for agricultural and commercial real...
What is it going to take for every appraiser to comment on Town Hall concerning the proposed Guidance Document on hybrid appraisals? Even if you have no intentions of ever completing a hybrid appraisal, it is important for you to place a comment on Town Hall concerning the document and these questionable products. If appraisers are not willing to step up and take a stand against actions that are contributing to the next housing crash, who will? If you have seen any of the samples floating around on the blogs and forums, you realize very quickly, these products are not credible...
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...
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...
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...
Banking still hasn’t recovered from the financial crisis using this metric. History is repeating itself right now with the “modernization” movement – code word for “automated valuation” using abysmally unreliable technology. “Trust” is Hard To Win Back Trust is a wildly important asset to have in the banking industry. They violated the public trust during the housing bubble and have worked hard but still haven’t reach pre-bubble trust levels. Let this be a lesson to Appraisal Management Companies, Mortgage Lenders, GSEs and Regulators who are currently working hard to undermine consumer trust again through the mortgage valuation process in order...
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...
