Author: Dave Towne

The VA Required to Encourage Hybrids - Senate Passes HR 7735 18

The VA Required to Encourage Hybrids – Senate Passes HR 7735

The VA will now be required to encourage hybrid appraisals.  If you are a VA Appraiser, here’s a bit of news you need to keep tabs on. Senate Passes VA Appraisal Modernization Measure – theMReport.com The U.S. Senate has announced the passage of HR 7735, the Improving Access to the VA Home Loan Benefit Act of 2022. Under the terms of HR 7735, sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mike Bost, the VA will be required to: Issue certification requirements for appraisers; Execute minimum property requirements; Review the process for selecting and reviewing comparable sales; Implement quality control processes; Establish...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Political Action / The US Department of Veterans Affairs / Trending

Smartphone Measuring Technology 15

Smartphone Measuring Technology

This new measuring technology claims the software to be ANSI compliant.  Appraisers, over the past couple of years, there have been lively discussions on forums, Facebook groups, at conferences, etc., about a ‘new’ technology which allows a ‘phone holder’ to measure a structure, with that technology providing a “Sketch” or “Floor Plan” of that structure. Some of you may have heard about one of the originating companies, Matterport, which some real estate agents/brokers use to generate virtual 3D interior diagrams and videos used in property marketing. Smartphone measuring technology evolved from that. Until recently, I and others did not understand...

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

AVMs The Not So Accurate Magic Bullet 21

AVMs… The Not So Accurate Magic Bullet

That article mentioned three on-line services which claim to provide accurate property values. In alphabetical order, those services were REDFIN, ReMax, and Zillow.  Folks, in all the diatribes against appraisers by people who believe “we” have built-in systemic bias, the topic of AVMs has come up. Some of the diatribers apparently think that using an AVM will magically produce an accurate property valuation, while eliminating bias, and appraisers. Well, not so fast. A while ago I saw a ‘consumer facing’ article telling people how they could get the value on their home. That article mentioned three on-line services which claim...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / Trending

Visualizing Market Activity Using Graphs & Trendlines 4

Visualizing Market Activity Using Graphs & Trendlines

Spreadsheets and graphs are powerful tools for appraisers. With proper data, and incorporated into reports, they can enhance your professionalism and decision-making ability.  Appraisers, this article will highlight the process I use to bring clarity to my research and analysis of ‘comparable’ properties. This completed process becomes an exhibit in all my appraisal reports because it helps the Intended User(s) visually see what the market has been doing over a known time period. The exhibit graph also indicates a daily rate of change for the sales over the time period, which can then be applied as a ‘time’ (market) adjustment...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice / USPAP

Hit Pieces & Diatribes Against Appraisers Based on Census Tracts 15

Diatribes Against Appraisers

What’s even more frustrating to me is none of the well-known appraiser organizations have offered any public rebuttal to any of these hit pieces, or explained how the appraisal process works as a way to defend appraisers… Census Tract data delineating RACE of the population is the only ammunition the people doing these hit pieces can use to attack appraisers. Appraisers, this is a long article but it’s important, as it reveals how you are being discredited in the work you do. Yet, ‘we’ must begin doing some introspection of what we are or have been doing, and make necessary...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisal Subcommittee

UAD Composite Property Data Info Released to the Public 18

UAD Composite Property Data Info Released to the Public

Appraisers, since 2011, the GSEs (called the ‘Enterprises’) have been collecting and analyzing appraisal data using their proprietary Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) which was overlaid on four of the standard GSE appraisal forms, SFR’s and Condo’s only. Ever since then, appraisers and other users have complained that none of that data was available. Well, now it is available, but not highly detailed down to specific properties. See below for the web site link. Some of that data is granular down to specific Census Tracts, which appraisers seldom, if ever, use in their market analysis to determine comparable sales and their...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Federal Housing Finance Agency / FHFA / UAD

Remove Predominant Price from the New Forms 16

Remove Predominant Price from New Forms

Something that has ‘stuck in my craw’ or ‘frosted my cookies’ for years is the nonsense about stating a specific “PREDOMINANT” price for neighborhood homes. And then being forced to explain why the Opinion of Value is not precisely that number, and if not, why not. Real estate is IMPERFECT. Properties, especially comparables, seldom, if ever, sell for the very same or extremely similar prices. If that is the case, how can there be an exact “PREDOMINANT” figure? The possible exception to this are highly dense urban developments where the new construction homes are cookie cutters, and the builder sells...

AI / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

Grants to Help Train Appraisers 20

Grants to Help Train Appraisers

To establish grants directly to supervisor appraisers to help cover the training costs for each Trainee… Folks, this article appeared in American Banker on September 7, 2022. In my view, after reading it, the article appears to present a balanced perspective about what appraisers have been experiencing since the FIRREA law was mandated back in 1989. It also exposes problems with getting new people into the appraisal profession. If you have been paying attention to appraisal related activities over the years, you will recognize the names of people quoted in this American Banker article. One thing that has not been...

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

Baltimore Racial Bias Lawsuit 12

Baltimore Racial Bias Lawsuit

When reading over the Baltimore document, it appears painfully clear (to me) that there is a competency issue exposed. Folks, below is the Baltimore court paperwork for the latest appraiser bias suit that recently ‘hit the fan.’ This document is fairly specific, in that it reveals quite a lot about the two appraisals performed, including the home locations for the ‘comps’ used. The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are from the same Washington, D.C. firm that The Appraisal Foundation hired to examine USPAP. That firm was the one which has provided new ‘discrimination avoidance’ verbiage being considered in the USPAP Third...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice / USPAP

No End Date for Future Editions of USPAP 7

No End Date for Future Editions of USPAP

Future editions of USPAP will have an effective start date but no end date. Folks, on Thursday August 11, 2022, the ASB/TAF announced the extension of the current USPAP to the end of 2023. Assuming that a ‘new’ USPAP is formally approved in time, the next issue of USPAP will become effective January 1, 2024. But here’s the interesting wrinkle about this, which I admit I missed in their 8/11/22 announcement: “How long is the current version of USPAP effective? With this announcement, the 2020-21 USPAP will now have an effective date through December 31, 2023. This is an additional...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisal Subcommittee / Appraisers News / AQB

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