Folks, 16 local Assessors across the US have requested to FHFA that the GSE’s UAD property rating data be provided to Assessors, with the belief that UAD will help them be more accurate in their local tax assessments. This info has been circulating the past few days, in the link below: Kaegi, other tax officials want access to Uniform Appraisal Database to help make property taxes fairer | Crain’s Chicago Business From the article: Kaegi (Cook County, Illinois) has suggested that the Uniform Appraisal Database maintained by the federally chartered mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might help plug...
What once was a ‘three year’ project to redesign and implement revised appraisal forms has morphed into one taking far longer. Actual implementation and use of ‘new forms’ are not scheduled to happen until (presumably) early in 2024, but could be extended even further. By 2024, the currently used ‘forms’ will be 19 years old, and the current UAD overlay entering ‘teenage hood’ at 13. For context, the current Planet Mars Perseverance Rover mission to successfully plan and land scientific instruments took only 9 years! Details for the ‘forms redesign extension’ are based on the announcement from Fannie Mae (and Freddie...
The FHFA is requesting input on appraisal related policies, practices and processes. We encourage everyone to submit comments. The Request for Input (RFI) is open to comment until February 26, 2021. The input received in response to the RFI will be used by FHFA to determine the necessary modifications needed to ensure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) operate in a safe and sound manner. “Modernizing the appraisal process has the potential to create a more streamlined and accurate collateral valuation process. But if modernization is not properly adopted, it could have negative unintended consequences,” said Director Mark Calabria....
In 2018, the GSEs began working on ‘mortgage lending appraisal forms redesign’, a process they said would take approximately 3 years to accomplish. The effort is currently underway, however they have not announced exactly when the process will be completed, or when the new forms will take effect. Attached is a PDF of their FAQs through June 2020 which you may want to peruse, just so you become more aware of “what’s coming down the track” not too long from now. From my quick read of this FAQ document, key items include: GSE forms are not to be used for...
I have in my possession an appraisal for a DUPLEX (2 family residence) on a FNMA 1025/FrMac 72 form, commonly called the ‘1025 Form’ which was done by a Certified Residential Appraiser licensed for 8 yrs, 6 months. Items “observed” in the report: UAD rating numbers are used for Quality and Condition. 1025 forms are not UAD coded, so why are these used? Please don’t tell me “the client said so” because the client is incorrect, and may not be aware. Use the standard wording for those items, and provide a definition description of the standard wording you use. The Highest and...
The genesis for this essay began when I heard from another appraiser that a VA report reviewer rejected the comparables “DOC Number” on the Verification Source(s) line. The reviewer said the “DOC Number” was not acceptable as a Verification Source. In fact, VA has said in a newsletter to appraisers that “… Assessor’s File Number may never be used as a Verification Source.” I disagree with that position, and this essay explains why. It also explains what appraisers should do to provide credible Data and Verification Source(s) in reports. Caveat: I don’t do VA assignments. I decided that a deeper dive...
We raised a fuss when it first came out, but we became complacent and accepted what was being dictated to us. Appraisers are supposed to be messengers of the market, right? If that statement is accurate, the question everyone needs to be asking is why appraisers are not allowed to do their jobs? Without getting into a lot a finger pointing and blame, I am just going to come right out and say it. Appraisers are to blame. Not because appraisers wanted to influence the market, but we allowed others to take control and we sat by and did nothing....
I would like to give a background as to what prompted this article. A few years back, word on the street was that the Collateral Underwriter was going to be using big data collected directly from our reports from the inception of UAD to aid in determining what should be “reasonable adjustments”. In order to be preemptive, I consulted an acquaintance of mine who just so happened to have a PhD in Statistics from Princeton. We worked through a number of real case scenario data sets to try and figure out if there was a way I could use regression...
…the Cost Approach is the most INACCURATE of the three current ‘Approaches’ we use… Appraisers, for the past few weeks, emails have been sent by a third party asking appraisers to complete a survey about the appraisal process and the current forms. I did so; you should also. But I wanted to expand on one aspect of the survey. Two separate questions, on different survey pages, related to the Cost Approach (CA). These questions wanted appraisers to state their opinion about 1) if the forms provide adequate detail to develop a CA, and 2) if it is or is not...
Lenders Allies, LLC, an appraisal management company, has agreed to a consent order with the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board (TALCB). On May 1, 2019 Lenders Allies agreed to a final order neither admitting guilt or denying guilt of violations of Texas law. The case revolved around the investigation of a complaint against an appraiser, which then lead them to Lenders Allies. The appraiser completed 59 appraisals for Lenders Allies over a period of two years as an employee and at no time was the appraiser on Lenders Allies appraiser panel maintained by the TALCB. Was this an administrative oversight...
