Author: Jonathan Miller

Slandering Appraisers: Cincinnati Real Estate Broker May Be Both a Fool and a Tool 21

Slandering Appraisers… Fooling the Appraiser

…the purpose of the game is to fool the appraiser into thinking that the property is worth the agreed upon purchase price… Real estate broker Karen Schlosser provides videos to her customers as part of her Tech Tool Monday Series. She recently promoted her video called “Fool The Appraiser” – a catchy marketing phrase to promote dishonesty. She literally has no idea how offensive this is to the appraisal industry and how unprofessional this makes her look to the public and her peers. From the transcript of her video: So, the purpose of the game is to fool the appraiser...

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TAF Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittee 5

TAF Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittee

TAF president Dave Bunton has made it a point in the last two monthly newsletters to mention TAF created a “Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee” which is great if it actually accomplishes something. The Appraisal Foundation Board of Trustees added a Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee in April of this year, one month before the death of George Floyd, which highlighted some of the inequities experienced by Black Americans. The thing is, the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB) hasn’t had a minority member and only 3 women in decades of existence. I really hope that this subcommittee is more than just window-dressing. Adding...

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Blaming Appraisers of Racial Bias Without Proof or Logic 22

Racial Bias Claims Without Proof or Logic

The Appraisal Institute just sent a letter to The Appraisal Foundation to address things that have been floating out in the ether for nearly two years. The November 2018 Brookings Institute report blames appraisers without proof or logic for lower property values in minority communities and then the June 2019 Congressional Hearing amplified the Brookings misrepresentation of the appraisal industry. It’s taken 14 months to send this letter? Interestingly, the chairman of the Board of Trustees that Jeff is writing to is a personal property appraiser and not a real estate appraiser. Real property appraisal is the reason for TAF’s...

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ASC Extends the North Dakota Waiver for Another Year 3

ASC Extends the ND Waiver for Another Year

On July 29, 2020, the Appraisal Subcommittee voted to extend the North Dakota waiver for another year with a 6 to 1 vote. The overarching reason to extend was because of the COVID outbreak prevented them from meeting in person this year. HUD was the only agency to take issue with this and I have to say I agree with their reasoning. North Dakota had 7 months to come up with a solution before COVID hit. I’m not taking ASC to task on this though because there is some validity to the COVID excuse. My assumption is that there is...

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Good Appraisers Lived That Hell Too... Lumped in with the Bad Appraisers 2

Good Appraisers Lived That Hell Too

Instead, good appraisers have been lumped in with the bad appraisers who are long gone… Although I’ve shared the following CNBC clip before, it’s worth showing again given my 15-year ago hairstyle. In 2005, I was interviewed by CNBC in the midst of the Housing Bubble and said that 75% of the appraisals being done then weren’t worth the paper they were written on (hey it was 2005 and they were done on paper, not pdf). They found me because I had just started my Matrix Blog because no one seemed to be listening to appraisers. Incidentally as of this week, Matrix is...

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Previous AI Sham Election Victim Shares What Happened 3

Refresher on AI Sham Election History

Here’s a shoutout to Jim Amorin and Leslie Sellers as you are reading this right now – – here’s a refresher on Appraisal Institute history… Like Craig Steinley, the 2007 victim of the unethical petition process I’ve covered over the previous two weeks, Anne L. Johnson was selected by the nominating committee to be Vice President after being vetted against a number of candidates. This sham petition process was implemented to get Leslie Sellers (he voted for himself after not making the cut with the nominating committee) on track to later become President and then led AI to exit TAF without a legitimate explanation...

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The Appraisal Institute Sham Election

One of the most unethical actions against AI membership is about to take place (for a third time), and the uproar is just beginning. I’ve had many appraisers reach out to me over the past week, conveying how upset they were. I’m not even affiliated with the Appraisal Institute, and I’m furious because it brings down the entire industry in the eyes of others. Back in 2016, I unleashed a flurry of commentary criticizing the Appraisal Institute executives who had a plan to take all chapter funds for no justifiable reason. The membership reacted by calling leadership to task, which is a...

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USPAP Will No Longer Be Misleading

Back in early February on Appraisalville, I questioned a new definition that appeared in USPAP for the term “misleading.” Many others took to their platforms to criticize it, such as Phil Crawford of the Voice of Appraisal podcast and Dave Towne, a prolific writer of all things that keep appraisers sane. Dave writes today: Gad zooks… I (and lots of others) hope and wish the Appraisal Standards Board would QUIT making changes to USPAP every friggin’ two years! There is no way to satisfy everyone’s individual perspective as to how USPAP should be written. Here is the problematic definition from the current version of USPAP. While...

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Banks Show Little Appetite for Suicide 18

Banks Show Little Appetite for Suicide

More than a decade ago when the housing/credit bubble burst the focus on exiting the financial crisis was to bail out the banking industry. They were essentially insolvent and by not forcing them to “mark to market” their asset values to their new lows which would force them to declare insolvency, they survived. Banks had become reckless and in the eyes of the government and needed to be bailed out or the global economy would collapse and caveman days would return. My friend and zen-goddess of the housing data vertical Ivy Zelman of Zelman & Associates paraphrased a quote by...

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Potential Tsunami of Mortgage Fraud - Deferring Appraisals for 120 Days 11

Potential Tsunami of Mortgage Fraud

Here is my take on the new ruling since I just happen to be an appraiser with 34 years of experience: Lenders have seen their mortgage volume drop because of liquidity issues (namely job loss and uncertainty about future income). Lenders are also reluctant to issue low rate loans in this situation given concerns about liquidity and lack of processing capacity, so mortgage rates are not falling in aggregate. In essence, they are slightly higher than a month ago. There is also the likelihood of declining property values going forward, so an 80% LTV could be a 100% LTV tomorrow....

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