Clear Capital suggests that the VA consider the use of a desktop appraisal On April 4, 2017, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing on “Assessing VA Approved Appraisers And How To Improve The Program For The 21st Century.” The hearing was designed to “assess VA’s current appraisal process, as well as specific difficulties for timely appraisals in highly rural areas”, as well as to investigate possible technological solutions to mitigate timeliness issues. Much of the hearing focused on two areas: The requirements for becoming a member of the VA appraiser panel, and the baseline requirements for comparable...
Big Corporations like CoreLogic are like sharks… This morning, as I do every morning, I made some coffee and began work on one of the two appraisal reports that were soon to be due. The first was for an AMC known as Speedy Title and Appraisal Review Services. This appraisal management company is owned by CoreLogic. From their website “CoreLogic is an Irvine, CA based corporation providing financial, property and consumer information, analytics and business intelligence. The company analyzes information assets and data to provide clients with analytics and customized data services. The company also develops proprietary research, and tracks...
No paid lobbyist, just appraisers talking with the Senators and Delegates about the abuses of some AMCs… Governor McAuliffe signed SB1573 into law requiring appraisal management companies to pay within 30 days of the initial delivery. This becomes law July 1, 2017. Here is how it happened…. Two appraisers, both small business owners, sat down and had a conversation with Senator Frank Wagner about some of the issues appraisers are facing. By the end of the conversation, the three were on the phone with a representative of Legislative Services drafting the verbiage of the bills needed to help protect the...
Excessive markups are common but consumers usually “know nothing about it”… The Chicago Tribune has published an article written by Ken Harney concerning appraisal fees. The article is very telling of what appraisers already know. Now the consumers are aware. Please read and share the article with your colleagues, agents, local MLS Board, Realtor Board, Appraisal Board and your Legislators. The more the abuses of some AMCs are exposed, the more opportunity we have to protect the consumer. Are you paying unseen add-on fees for your appraisal? By Kenneth R. Harney Are you getting fleeced on appraisal charges when you...
Mortgagee letter on choosing FHA appraiser, AMC &/or 3rd party fees… Does HUD have a Better Understanding of the Role of AMCs? Recently an old HUD/ FHA mortgagee letter has resurfaced. The mortgagee letter, 2009-28 has to do with choosing a FHA approved Roster Appraiser and Appraisal Management Company and / or Third Party Organization Fees. This mortgagee letter specifically states “the fee for the actual completion of an FHA appraisal may not include a fee for management of the appraisal process any activity other than the performance of the appraisal.” This mortgagee letter was written prior to the Final Rules and...
Amendments to Sales Contract & Updates to the Appraisal… Fannie Mae recently issued the following: Currently, we require the lender to provide the appraiser with all amendments made to a sales contract, including amendments that are made after completion of the appraisal. With this update, we have clarified when the appraiser must be provided with updates to the sales contract and circumstances that warrant updates to the appraisal. For example, if the contract is amended in a way that affects the description of the real property used by the appraiser, then the lender must provide the updated contract to the...
Very often the public records are dead wrong… Appraisers, We all know Fannie Mae (FNMA) has their Collateral Underwriting (CU) report scoring system after the .xml file of the report is submitted through the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP) portal used by both GSE’s. This system of theirs is used to ‘score’ an appraisal for a loan quality rating, and it’s also used to provide a lender with a guarantee of relief from a FNMA loan buy-back demand, if the report ‘scores’ a number of 2.5 or lower. We’ve previously discussed how that can be manipulated by a lender or an...
Foreign entities do not get a voice in what legislation is introduced… Let’s think about this with an open mind… More states are introducing bills concerning AMC legislation, more specifically how AMCs will conduct business. Even states with existing AMC legislation are introducing stricter, more precise legislation. Why is this happening in all 55 jurisdictions? States do not want to interfere in how a company or industry conducts business, but when practices are so abusive that it harms small businesses and consumers, they have little choice. States have the obligation to protect their citizens and businesses that contribute to the...
FREE To CHOOSE… A member of VaCAP shared this on Facebook… We though it is very appropriate as a reminder of the choices we have as appraisers: You Are FREE To CHOOSE, But You are NOT FREE from the CONSEQUENCE of Your CHOICE In case you missed it… The Housing Wire Webinar held on March 1st is now posted for everyone to listen to. Some mistruths about an appraiser shortage is put to bed. The webinar is 60 minutes. You can watch it below and download the slides used in the presentation here. What is going to happen to...
These forms were “designed” to be used for those specific purposes… Appraisers, Earlier this week, I discussed the following about some lenders requesting a type of property inspection to be completed on a form “Not Designed” for the specific property type: Original observation discussed earlier this week: Read the highlighted sentence. Read the highlighted sentence again. According to a regional bank in my area, via info from their AMC, “thousands” of Manufactured Home appraisals have been done on the 2055 form. Do you do that, just because someone – who just wants to “make a sale” – tells you to...
