Well said Bubba Jay! Maybe the eggheads who come up with these forms will start listening to us. Nah you know that will never happen! Counting down to retirement!

both ends of the line are moving up. (INCREASING). the first and last numbers hitting the same horizontal line indicate a movement back to the same plane, or stability. declining? i dont see it at all.

line five and seven show an increasing trend? dont see that either. those numbers have barely budged and a line drawn between the points in my imaginary graph would remain virtually perfectly horizontal. i would like to know what would put a stable conclusion in the authors mind? all numbers exactly the same? yeah, that will happen.

knowing my market the way i do, i see more signs of stability, with all reports from local and national media and realtors associations/MLS, indicating nothing declining, but a slight and fragile incline across the board. i would have marked stable too.

i think its the author who does not understand trend reporting, and accusing someone of violating USCRAP here is total garbage and completely unnecessary. (but hey, being completely self-centered and egotistical, and treating fellow appraisers like crap has always been the norm hasnt it?)

i think we have exposed one of the many problems with this form – trying to determine market trends with only three line item numbers, within a very short period of time. there just isnt enough data to reach reliable conclusions. lets face it, we are way past time to retire this worthless document.
looking at the form, i do however disagree with the use of the word “unavailable”. if no data is truly available, i would prefer to see a “0” instead, and think thats more appropriate.

the bleeding continues . . . . .

If migrating from AF, then double welcome! You will find our hosts READ the posts here but do not interfere with them. They are appraisers and if you are having a problem with the site just describe it and when possible they will either fix it or help you to solve it. Most here are pretty nice people… even if/when we get ‘testy’ with each other once in awhile.

Hehehe I love it Mike! Number 3 is my favorite… you’re too funny.

Hi Des!

I’m also found of using the following typed characters to “mark” boxes that I don’t want to mark.

These are [-, *, N, 0, NA, Cmmts] and this will come as a  complete shock to many that know me for my brevity; but I’ve been known to expand on comments from time to time.

I do that for three reasons:

1. to explain my thinking

2. to circumvent form constraints

3. to drive reviewers batshit.

They KNOW up front if they nit pick me, they are going to have to respond to the Great American Novel in return.

It may be inadequate due to too small a sample size; or contradictory results or any number of reasons other than the form itself being a piece of crap.

It is a violation if USPAP to provide a misleading report or to report misleading information as being reliable. Again, it is NEVER the form that dictates an appraisers obligation. IF the form is inadequate (in any area) then it is OUR responsibility to augment it with sufficient data to be reliable.

I almost NEVER use “neighborhood” to describe anything. I use competitive market area and explain what that is. I am still a real estate appraiser-not just a form filler and I can only be guided by what the client asks me to do (or not do). I cannot be required to ‘use’ only data they tell me to IF I believe THAT would result in an erroneous or misleading conclusion. If I DO use a reporting format such as a 1004MC Trend data as a (trend) conclusion and that data is wrong then the appraisal and the report are more than problematic. They are outright violations of USPAP. SRs 1 AND 2.

Line 1 is the number of sales during the periods. Line 2 is that number divided by the #months in that period. How can 1 be declining and 2 be increasing? Please say your comment was a typo. I would think someone interested enough to write an article would not make this kind of fundamental mistake.

I agree and because of that first 7-12 months is a six month period you have to take into consideration how the absorption rate is trending. How about we stop bashing the persons filling out these forms, maybe advise them on the process, but start getting the people who make up these ridiculous forms to get out in the field and see if they actually work.

Hey Dave you might want to take up a refresher course on this one, just saying.

And how is the appraiser determining trends for line nos. 3, 4 & 8? Did he/she include a search criteria so that others could duplicate the data? Were graphs showing trends included in the report?

As for checking boxes in the 1004MC form just because clients tell appraisers that they cannot be left unchecked, that’s BS. No one can force you to provide a misleading report. When clients tell me that, I tell them there wasn’t enough data available to identify a trend and that they are asking me to provide a misleading report/analysis which is a violation of USPAP. I usually include a comment as to why I couldn’t identify a trend and that’s the end of it.

I think the appraisers analysis is accurate within the lack of guidelines that we all have to work within. Overall all trends are for the year stable, do they vary on a percentage basis sure, that doesn’t mean the market is not stable.