Commercial appraisers may want to open this link, and read it. Your livelihood is possibly threatened by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). You may want to send a letter to the NCUA Board of Directors. Proposed Appraisal Rule Provides Relief, Clarity As part of the NCUA’s regulatory relief agenda, the Board approved a proposed rule (Part 722) to amend the agency’s real estate appraisal requirements for certain transactions. The proposed rule would provide a measure of regulatory relief and increased clarity by: Increasing the threshold for required appraisals in non-residential real estate transactions from the current $250,000 to $1 million; Reorganizing...
ALL unintended users are specifically excluded from any right of reliance on this appraisal report… Recently, Mr. Steve Kahane, Board Member of the Association of Texas Appraisers (ATA) wrote a great article in WorkingRE. It included several suggestions for Texas to deal with it’s excessive number (70%-75%) of unfounded complaints against appraisers. An American Guild of Appraisers member in New Jersey who has twice faced this exact kind of complaint abuse reminded me of the article and concurred with its suggestions for his state. Fortunately for our member, New Jersey is not one of those relatively few ‘charge and win...
Why haven’t State Licensing Boards audited AMCs? Things went a bit crazy, but in a very good way! Monday April 29th, VaCAP launched a consumer protection campaign on WRVA 1140 AM News Radio. Our email and social media accounts were non stop. Many of our sister Coalitions in The Network of State Coalitions helped spread the word and shared our Press Release with their members, posted on their websites and on their social media pages. A huge thank you to all our Sister Coalitions for helping us spread the word. In case you missed all the excitement, here is the...
We know there is science in art. Musical scales. Perspective and the golden ratio. The ordered sequence of a good novel. It’s difficult to be a good artist without knowing, or at least intuitively applying the truths found in the logic. Both science and art reflect our search for the truth. Our primal human nature is to resist the truth, even as it hits us in the groin. Resist the change. Fear. Give up something that has protected you. Something that gives you a place. A belonging. A prestige. An ego. A place where you are respected. Then someone or something comes along and says there is a better way. I...
…attempts to make readers believe desktop appraisals are the be-all, end-all of property valuation… Folks, a ‘white paper‘ was put out by a company in the property title, escrow and servicing sectors, tied to mortgage lending. It does a reasonable job of explaining what Hybrid appraisals are… which they call “desktop” assignments. Then this puff piece put out by Clear Capital, attempts to make readers believe these products are the be-all, end-all of property valuation. Both of these are typical PR pieces, designed to provide information while promoting a specific brand. Interestingly, neither mention anything at all about the interest...
Back on April 19th, I wrote about the New York AMC law in my Housing Notes newsletter. After years of AMCs chipping away at the public trust, the New York AMC law was designed to protect the consumer. The bill summary was: Relates to the registration of real estate appraisal management companies or an individual or business entity that provides appraisal management services to creditors or to secondary mortgage market participants including affiliates by the department of state. Last week, AppraisersBlogs ran it as a standalone post and I got a lot of feedback. To be clear, the bill was...
If the appraisers want to take back their industry they need to come together… This new law in NY has aroused a lot of comments from appraisers but let’s be honest. Appraiser have been complaining about AMCs for the last 10 years and waiting for the government, regulators and other to solve the problem with the whole AMC disaster. I have written about this before, the appraisers have no one to blame except themselves. If you wait for someone else to solve the AMC problem you are looking in the wrong place. We all know of the problems with AMCs...
VaCAP Launches Consumer Protection Campaign VaCAP is excited to launch a Consumer Protection Campaign! For months we prepped, we discussed, we negotiated, we wrote, we edited, wrote some more, edited some more… finally, we recorded. We have three 60 second consumer protection announcements airing on WRVA 1140 News Radio starting on Monday April 29th. The three consumer protection announcements will air randomly throughout the day for two weeks. WRVA 1140 News Radio live streams through Radio.com and iHeartRadio so anyone can tune in and listen. The consumer protection announcements will refer listeners to VaCAP’s website for more information where we have added a...
Appraisers, a new ‘company’ with “Appraisers Point” in their name has been marketing their services via emails across the fruited plain lately, encouraging appraisers to sign up on their web site and pay an annual fee so that ‘you’ can get on a list to be presented to, or accessed by, unnamed lenders, who might, or might not, want your service. They have a very slick looking web site that makes them look legit. Appraisers Point has no location shown on their website, so in reality, it could be anywhere in the world. The email messages show a location in...
…appraisal firm owners roll up your sleeves & hold the line on fees… I have been the owner of HF Appraisal Ltd since 1993 and I have sat on the sidelines in regards to Customary and Reasonable appraisal fees. I can no longer stand by and read nor hear about this issue. It is amazing to me that over the past five to ten years our fees have remained the same and in some cases are lower than they were 10 years ago. The more that I read about this and talk to appraisers across the country in classes and...
