Late yesterday afternoon a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives that would alter the mortgage process and ultimately the way millions of Americans receive a mortgage. HR 1108 would eliminate the need for an appraiser to appraise a home prior to the funds being disbursed to the
Federal actors could have responded to the appraisers’ warning and prevented the crisis On July 9, 2013 I participated in a radio interview with a lobbyist for the 100 largest financial firms. The San Francisco radio program host asked me what question I would ask the lobbyist and I said that any discussion should begin with allowing him to state his view of what caused the crisis. In the course of his explanation, he bemoaned the fact that there was no warning about the crisis. I found this ironic because I had just published that morning an article about how the...
We thought there would be some association between energy efficiency and mortgage risk… In March, a joint study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for Community Capital and the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) found that owners of ENERGY STAR-rated homes are one-third less likely to default on a mortgage than the average borrower. Home Energy Efficiency and Mortgage Risks used a sample of 71,000 home loans from 38 states and the District of Columbia, all derived from CoreLogic’s mortgage database. The sample was restricted to single-family, owner-occupied houses whose loans originated during 2002–2012 and were used...
Hire an Independent Property Appraiser for an Unbiased Evaluation Dealing in real estate requires a lot of knowledge about property markets. Not all buyers and sellers are well-acquainted with such matters. In such cases, it becomes important to hire a third party like a property appraiser who holds expertise in such matters. Why an Appraiser? Involving a property appraiser brings an element of impartiality in property dealings. When you deal directly with the opposite party
What Happens When a Short Sale Property Gets Approved for More Than the Appraisal Value? Most of the time when a potential home buyer submits a contract on an Orlando short sale, that person is expecting to get a fantastic deal on a home. Many times this is exactly what ends up happening. The lender approves your offer and you get the deal of a lifetime! However, depending on what happens with the appraisal, everything can still fall apart on you, so don’t celebrate just yet. Appraisal values, when it comes to short sales, are a crucial part of the...
Orlando Real Estate Sales Affected by Over Cautious Appraisers With the Orlando Real Estate market on the rise, appreciation has become an actual piece of the puzzle again. It’s very common these days for a property to receive several offers on it for thousands above the asking price, specifically in the more desirable neighborhoods. Unfortunately, appraisers don’t really care about offers that are submitted above asking price and will rarely appraise any Orlando property above that property’s listing price. Instead, they just go by the listing price and try and get as close as they can to it. However, this doesn’t...
How a Few Key Items in your Work File Can Protect You in Court I used to work with someone who had a photographic memory. Most of us are not so lucky, and have to rely on our imperfect memories and good note-taking skills. As an attorney, I document everything. I handle hundreds of cases, and without good documentation I will not remember what I did on a particular day or what support I had for a particular theory. As an appraiser, your work file is your documentation. Not only is a work file a USPAP requirement1, it can help...
The significant increase in insurance claims and disciplinary complaints against appraisers over the last few years is directly related to the foreclosure phenomenon and subsequent pattern of appraisal reviews performed during the last decade. The validity of both the process and results of these forensic reviews may have little relationship to the subsequent actions by those seeking the deep pockets of the appraiser and their insurance carriers to recover monies lost in bad loans. This trend shows no sign of diminishing. It remains incumbent upon appraisers to understand their errors and omissions insurance policies, any available risk management services available...
More than Half of Appraisers Responded They Get Clarification Requests from Clients Already Stated in the Report AppraisalPort Weekly Poll Analysis I receive a lot of e-mail from appraisers commenting about the time they spend working on requests for clarification on appraisals they have submitted to their clients. That prompted me to post two polls related to these client requests. The first poll asked, “What percent of your assignments result in a request for clarification from the client?” The results were a little different than expected with nearly half (45%) of the 4,691 respondents stating that they only get a...
Sinkholes have become a very hazardous and costly risk in Florida. There are certain counties: Pasco, Hernando, and Hillsborough where the land is inundated with sinkholes. However over the last few years the risk of sinkhole and subsidence events has been spreading geographically. According the state of Florida, 211 property insurers noted that claims increased from 2,360 in 2006 to 6,694 in 2010. The total dollar amount of those claims was near $1.4 billion dollars. There has not been a simple answer to why sinkhole incidents have been on the rise in Florida. It is believed that
