Request for appraiser input on current and future educational / experience requirements… The AGA sent the below letter to the AQB in response to their outreach asking for comments. Please write them and tell them YOUR views. If you agree with what we have said, then just copy it and add your name to it saying “we agree”. Or don’t copy it, and just say “We agree with the AGA letter”. If there are any significant parts you disagree with, then please ‘except’ those. If you have additional thoughts or suggestions for them (civil ones), feel free to add them....
On Tuesday February 23rd, The Virginia Real Estate Appraisal Board made history! The legislative code of Virginia states Licensed Appraisal Management Companies must provide customary and reasonable compensation to fee appraisers. There are two presumptions of compliance. One based on objective third party information, including fee schedules, studies and surveys prepared by independent third parties, such as government agencies, academic institutions, and private research firms. The other presumption of compliance is based on recent rates paid to a representative sample of providers of appraisal services in the geographic market of the property being appraised or fee schedules of those providers....
Collateral Underwriter – Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) FNMA has a fascination for first patenting garbage, & then implementing it as policy! FNMA simply LIED! Collateral Underwriter IS an automated ‘appraisal review’ despite disclaimers. It was never intended as anything else. Read the patent application below. Before I get into the details, I want to ask each reader to forward this to every appraiser you know. This concerns FNMA’s patent of the seriously flawed techniques and underlying support for their Collateral Underwriter (CU) Risk Rating “System”. It’s time for appraisers to take action against the unreliable system which is unfairly...
The problem is not simply that too many appraisers are retiring. Very few appraisers are entering the profession. In Illinois, the drop in real estate appraiser trainee applications went from 1,231 in 2005 to only 55 in 2015. That’s an over 95 percent decline. This drastic reduction in new entrants is being seen in states across the country. Many appraisers welcome the shortage, which has already driven up fees in many areas. But many believe the celebration is shortsighted. A decline in the number of appraisers threatens the integrity of lending and undermines the stability of the real estate market…
We should be busting with mortgage work. Where is all the mortgage work? I talk to appraisers and they all ask the same question. With the looming spring market and low interest rates, we should be busting with mortgage work. But the appraisers I know tend to get a reasonable and customary fee of above $400. So is it going to the bottom third? Now don’t get me wrong; I am quoting 2 to 3 weeks due to our back log. But outside of VA’s it’s everything but first mortgage work. I am fine with it because it’s less hassle....
Mortgage rates are approaching all time lows…again In case you have not been following mortgage lending rates activity, mortgage rates are again very close to what we experienced in the second quarter of 2013. Here’s the link to a Mortgage News Daily e-newsletter article. From the article: Mortgage rates were widely available at 3.5 percent for much of the day today. At any other time from the middle of 2013 through the end of 2015, that’s not something that very many people thought they’d be able to say (or read, or think!). A few lenders had been dabbling in quoting...
“Practically” unsinkable! This isn’t a topic I generally spend a lot of time on. Partly because I am ‘uneducated’ (sans college degree) and partly because it bores people to death. Despite this I ask you to bear with me. It all started while I was listening to my favorite local radio stock market gurus on the way to wash my car. An expert from the firm of Dewey Fleecem & Howe (DF&H), or some such firm, was explaining the current stock market instability in a historical context. Since our inception as a nation, DF&H reports that we have had 45...
Mr. $225 Appraiser, you are a major contributor to the problem Recently VaCAP has been receiving correspondence from Virginia Appraisers complaining about low fees and AMC abuses. Comments like the “The AMC is taking more than half of my fee” and another “Why hasn’t VaCAP done something?” One of the best yet… ”When is the Customary and Reasonable Fee Committee meeting? I can’t keep accepting appraisals for $225“ This came two weeks after the Customary and Reasonable Fee Committee meeting! Well Mr. $225 Appraiser, what rock have you been under? VaCAP sends out information on a regular basis; on average...
The only thing Big Data can’t do is smell. I got a call from my credit card company. Now I have been traveling a lot lately on business. Apparently, someone got my number and charged $199.53 at WalMart on Monday. I was not in WalMart, but a couple a weeks ago I bought a new TV at Sam’s Club. No question about the Sam’s Club purchase. How did they know I did not go to WalMart? I am truly amazed. The reason – BIG DATA! The banks are amassing massive amounts of data on you, me, everyone. They know more...
Board Members reported a shortage of individual appraisers offering suggestions, complaints and concerns… Legitimate ‘complaints’ should never be referred to as whining by any professional in my opinion. To do so diminishes the importance of the concerns being addressed. I attended the Las Vegas Public Hearing of the The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) / Appraisal Practices Board (APB) last Friday. No Appraisers Guild or member funds were used in any way for this. There was lots of good information. Board Members reported that there really is a shortage of individual appraisers offering suggestions, complaints and concerns to them as a Board,...
