Dustin Harris - The Appraiser Coach

Be Nice or Be Quiet

Dustin Harris — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 12:30:59 +0000

It’s never helpful for anyone to be mean. Even when we’re “anonymous” and hiding behind a keyboard, we need to be nice… Back in the 1980’s an American minister by the name of Robert Fulghum published a series of essays in a book titled All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten. One lesson that we should have all learned back in kindergarten, or before, is to “be nice”. Many of us did learn to be nice, but some of us need to re-learn that same lesson. The online world of social media (Facebook, forums, etc.) has made...

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Being Liberal with Values Hurts Homeowners

Dustin Harris — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 12:30:25 +0000

Why can’t it just be accurate instead of “conservative” or “liberal?” Just be precise in the way you do your job… Some people might say a public forum isn’t the place to air this dirty laundry, but this is not really a public forum. Of my thousands of readers, very few of them are not in real estate appraisal. Right now, I’m talking to the bad apples. Maybe you’re in a situation where you want a lot of volume and want to be the go-to person for the local mortgage company or local bank, and you want to keep them...

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Why Are Appraisers Banned?

Dustin Harris — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 12:30:33 +0000

I just got out of an interesting conversation I had with my CPA. Eventually, our conversation veered onto the topic of work. I was curious about what it takes to get into his field (not that I’m interested in getting into it at all). We talked about our respective professions and about changes occurring in the real estate appraisal field. We got into talking about what it means to be a CPA, which is different than being an accountant. A CPA is an accountant, but an accountant isn’t always a CPA. He said anyone can hang up a shingle and...

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I Reserve the Right Not to Serve You Anymore

Dustin Harris — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 13:30:03 +0000

Dude, I Reserve the Right Not to Serve You Anymore! OK, let’s face it: real estate appraisers are in the service business. We provide a service – real estate appraisals. We provide those services to anybody willing to pay for them. That’s what service providers do. To which you say, “Dustin, you have a deep grasp of the obvious.” Well, let’s go a little deeper. Part of what I do is stay in touch with local real estate brokers and appraisers. Some of us have a local restaurant we frequent. At the front door is a sign letting all patrons...

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Can an AMC Tell Appraisers How to Dress?

Dustin Harris — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 13:30:04 +0000

I recently saw a Facebook post where an appraiser was quite upset and offended that an AMC asked him to dress professionally for an appraisal walkthrough. Now, this was a request that was made up front as one of the conditions for accepting the order. Reading the post, it sounded like this appraiser was upset for two reasons. One, he was offended that the AMC was implying that he does not take his job seriously enough or dress professionally enough. Two, he felt like the AMC did not have a right to tell him how to do his job (i.e....

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Sex Offenders & Appraised Value

Dustin Harris — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 13:30:26 +0000

“You know there is a half-way house for sex offenders in the neighborhood, don’t you? It’s about two blocks away from the subject”.. OK. You’re well and truly involved with your research on a job that’s already late. You think you’ve got all your due diligence-bases covered. But you call the broker to confirm on last detail and she asks you, “You know there is a half-way house for sex offenders in the neighborhood, don’t you? It’s about two blocks away from the subject”. Needless to say, you are taken aback! No, you had no clue there was such a facility two blocks away from...

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Photos in Gated Communities Can be Tricky

Dustin Harris — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 12:30:36 +0000

Let’s talk about assignments in private neighborhoods, gated communities, or secure communities. Rich folks buy, sell, and refinance their homes, too, so they need appraisals. You have an assignment in a security community. There is security at the entrances, you must be on security’s authorized visitor list to get in, and your permission to enter this private community extends solely to visit your subject. So, here is the question: while inside this gated, secure community, do you also drive around and take photos of the comps? Now, even though you are reading this, I can see you looking at me...

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Is a Model Home Considered Occupied?

Dustin Harris — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 12:30:26 +0000

Two days later the underwriter emails you ordering you to change “vacant” to “occupied” since there is clearly furniture in the house… Here’s a situation you’ll run into once or twice in your career. There is a new subdivision. Now, new subdivisions sometimes have model homes. Model homes typically have furniture, fixtures, and equipment – usually upgraded. The subdivision has completed its sales program and the developer is now selling the model(s). Your job is to appraise one of the models, since the developer has it under contract to a retail buyer. You do your inspection thing, take pictures of...

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To Pay or Not To Pay, That is the Question

Dustin Harris — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 12:30:11 +0000

Should appraisers pay to be on an AMC’s approved appraiser list? Is this one way to get new clients? If an AMC solicited you, would you check it out? Now, I work for some AMCs that, frankly, you might not choose to work for. That’s fine. It’s a choice we all make. Understand that most of the areas I work are rural, so AMCs are generally willing to pay more because of this. Some AMC are very demanding. Yet, when I meet those demands, I get a lot of well-paying jobs from them. Recently, a new AMC asked me to...

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Will Big Data Put Appraisers Out of Business?

Dustin Harris — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 12:30:46 +0000

Part of the boom in the availability of data has led to companies such as Trulia and Zillow who claim they can “Zestimate” a home’s value instantaneously. But can your potential customers trust such value? In the old days, if a homeowner really wanted to find out how much their property was worth in the current market, they called an appraiser. Our customers understood that a licenced and qualified appraiser is trained, experienced, knowledgeable, and unbiased in his or her own marketplace. In the past few years, the Information Age has flooded us with data; lots of data. Big data...

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Not a Get Out of Jail Free Card

Dustin Harris — Fri, 22 May 2020 12:30:16 +0000

It is not misleading to use a 1004 form for a desktop or a drive-by because, during these convoluted times… In talking with Tim Andersen, a USPAP instructor and long-experienced appraiser, I was reminded that, even in the time of C-19, USPAP applies, and appraisals must still be credible. Reports must still not mislead. USPAP has never required the appraiser to inspect the property. That is a lender construct. So long as your scope of work is clear relative the level of inspection you provided, and why that was your scope of work, you should not have a problem. Note...

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Final When You’re Not the Original Appraiser

Dustin Harris — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 13:30:49 +0000

When You Complete a Final and Were Not the Original Appraiser First of all, let’s clear the air of any initial confusion that could be potentially floating around out there. It is absolutely okay for an appraiser to complete a final for a property when they were not the original appraiser on the original report. It is perhaps slightly more unusual, but completely ethical. However, there are a few issues that an appraiser could potentially run into if they are completing a final for a report where they were not the original appraiser. I am going to talk about one...

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Is That an Arm’s-Length Transaction?

Dustin Harris — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 13:30:16 +0000

USPAP does not define the term arm’s-length transaction. Fannie Mae also lacks such a definition. Yet, both of them call for the appraiser to use only arm’s-length transactions as comparable sales… How often do we appraisers get into the mode where we think we know it all? Occasionally, do we need to step back and look at the way we do things, just to make sure we are not missing something? Is what we know to be true and correct really true and correct? I raise this issue relative to the concept of what an arm’s-length transaction is. Are we...

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Are Reports Intellectual Property?

Dustin Harris — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 12:30:01 +0000

Recently one of my Mastermind students asked about Intellectual Property. He told me that he’d had an associate leave his firm to go solo. Later, he was reading one of his former-associate’s reports and found the now-independent associate’s reports looked a lot like his in format, and even language. My student asked me if this was wrong. Well, I’m not a lawyer, but there are some sound issues to consider here. If you write something, if you are its author, it is your intellectual property. You can either trademark it (like a logo), or copyright it (like a novel). We...

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Can We Stop Taking Comp Photos?

Dustin Harris — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 12:30:40 +0000

I personally do not think that appraisers should be required to take comp photos… First, before the hate mail starts rolling in, let me assure you that I understand the requirements surrounding comparable photos, and I do take them as an appraiser. I am not here to debate what the policies are, but I am here to question if those policies should be in place. I personally do not think that appraisers should be required to take comp photos. Modern technology has provided appraisers with a way to know as much about a property from the comfort of their own...

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Who Can Complain About Appraisals?

Dustin Harris — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 12:30:03 +0000

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...

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Different Properties on the Same Form?

Dustin Harris — Wed, 22 May 2019 12:30:59 +0000

Are you appraising the retail values of 10 sites to 10 different owners? Are you appraising the bulk or discounted market value of the 10 sites to a single purchaser? Can the Same Form Have More Than One Property on it? Lots of folks have asked me, “Dustin, can I appraise two different properties on the same appraisal report at the same time?”. Now understand I am not a USPAP instructor, I am an appraiser, so I’m going to answer this question as best I can. The question before us is legitimate, and one which I had to answer recently....

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Appraising Where It is Warmer

Dustin Harris — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 12:30:31 +0000

I found that there are not really any appraisal laws… There was a point when I was seriously considering the possibility of moving to Belize. I live in a cold climate so the prospect of living in a warmer area for at least part of the year appeals strongly to me. However, after visiting Belize, I quickly realized that – while I love the country – I personally do not want to live there – mainly because their cost of living is higher than I had been told. That being said, while there, I did quite a bit of research...

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Should Adjustments Actually Be Done?

Dustin Harris — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 12:30:20 +0000

How much credit should we give ourselves when it comes to making adjustments? Making adjustments is controversial. USPAP says nothing about adjustments – it does not require us to make them. They are a GSE construct. So, should we real estate appraisers stop making adjustments? Clients pay us for opinions of value, so our adjustments are really opinions based on what the market tells us (or that’s what we should base them on), but they are still opinions we form; they are not facts we find. So, maybe, should we stop making adjustments? We derive our adjustments from sources such...

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What to Tell Borrowers in an Inspection

Dustin Harris — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 12:30:35 +0000

It can be hard to know exactly what to tell a borrower sometimes in an inspection when it comes to repairs. For example, if you see chipping and peeling paint in an older home, and it is an FHA inspection, do you let the homeowner know that there is a good chance that their lender will ask them to repair it? While it is probably not a big deal either way, I see both pros and cons to both sides of this issue. If the borrowers seem kind and agreeable, I typically will tell them about the repairs. It gives...

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