Category: Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice

AQB Initial Fair Housing Course 11

AQB Initial Fair Housing Course

Mandatory completion of an initial fair housing course lasting 7 hours by January 1st 2025, as well as 4 additional hours every renewal cycle thereafter.  Recently, the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB) has proposed new requirements for those looking to become an appraiser or renew their certification/license. These include mandatory completion of an initial fair housing course lasting seven hours by January 1st 2025, as well as four additional hours every renewal cycle thereafter if this becomes standard practice. The following is taken right out of the new exposure draft on real property appraiser qualifications criteria. “The core goal is to...

CoreLogic Policy Change Counter to USPAP Requirements 12

CoreLogic Policy Change Counter to USPAP Requirements

  CoreLogic is pleased to announce a change to its data retention policy. I received this notice from CoreLogic: Effective April 1, 2023, CoreLogic’s maximum storage commitment for appraisal and title data will be limited to 5 years. NOTICE OF CHANGE TO CORELOGIC DATA RETENTION POLICY Dear Trusted Provider, In careful consideration of requests from our clients as well as industry risk management best practices, CoreLogic is pleased to announce a change to its data retention policy. Effective April 1, 2023, CoreLogic’s maximum storage commitment for appraisal and title data will be limited to 5 years. This change applies to...

Confusing Language for USPAP Ethics Rule Addition 31

Confusing Language for USPAP Ethics Rule Addition

A proposed update of professional guidelines for property appraisals contains confusing language about what constitutes discrimination, and would even suggest appraisers could engage in “ethical” discrimination.  Folks, the following article is in the ABA Banking Journal e-newsletter, posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2023. I’m really glad this has been released. Hopefully the Appraisal Standards Board will closely examine the concerns of the regulators. I read the USPAP 4th Exposure Draft. It contains so much new Ethics Rule “legaleze” language about conduct that it is, and can be, overwhelmingly confusing to a majority of appraisers. It’s written by lawyers in such...

Appraiser Countersuing Black Homeowners for Defamation 164

Appraiser Countersuing Black Homeowners for Defamation

The Maryland appraiser has filed a countersuit against the homeowners, claiming defamation.  Appraisers, there have been several lawsuits filed against appraisers by borrowers who “don’t like your value, so I’m accusing you of discrimination” over the last year or so. These lawsuits all have the same theme, and it’s entirely possible that these actions are being coordinated by a consortium of ‘organizers’ and law firms. The plaintiff representing firm for the Baltimore suit is the same law firm The Appraisal Foundation hired to write new USPAP language for the Ethics Rule, which potentially will be approved in just a few...

All This Will Do is CREATE BIAS! 29

All This Will Do is CREATE BIAS!

All this will do is CREATE BIAS… How does one stay unbiased if they repeatedly get sued or raked over the coals every time they do an honest, true appraisal that does not meet the expectation of untrained members of the general public…  Does bias exist? Of course. Does it exist in appraising? Rarely, if ever. Not one of the publicly aired cases has shown any verifiable facts or data to prove their claims. Bias in appraising is rare and far less than in nearly all other vocations. Why? Because appraisers are and have been, for decades, already held to...

Bias & Discrimination in Reports 11

Bias and Discrimination in Reports, Yes or No?

Appraisers, should we include discussion of B&D in our reports? Wait, What?? Bondage and Discipline? No, not that. Bias and Discrimination. Yes, it must be addressed very clearly. Now, before you blow a cork or throw your mouse at the computer screen, let’s examine what’s really been impacting ‘us’ for the past 4 plus years. One of our peers, who’s become somewhat famous for the way articles are written about appraisal and other topics, had a recent article ‘rebroadcasted’ in AppraisersBlogs, FTX Bought Government’s Silence; Did Fintechs Buy Attacks on Appraisers? A statement in that article exposes some of what has...

Visualizing Market Activity Using Graphs & Trendlines 4

Visualizing Market Activity Using Graphs & Trendlines

Spreadsheets and graphs are powerful tools for appraisers. With proper data, and incorporated into reports, they can enhance your professionalism and decision-making ability.  Appraisers, this article will highlight the process I use to bring clarity to my research and analysis of ‘comparable’ properties. This completed process becomes an exhibit in all my appraisal reports because it helps the Intended User(s) visually see what the market has been doing over a known time period. The exhibit graph also indicates a daily rate of change for the sales over the time period, which can then be applied as a ‘time’ (market) adjustment...

Hit Pieces & Diatribes Against Appraisers Based on Census Tracts 15

Diatribes Against Appraisers

What’s even more frustrating to me is none of the well-known appraiser organizations have offered any public rebuttal to any of these hit pieces, or explained how the appraisal process works as a way to defend appraisers… Census Tract data delineating RACE of the population is the only ammunition the people doing these hit pieces can use to attack appraisers. Appraisers, this is a long article but it’s important, as it reveals how you are being discredited in the work you do. Yet, ‘we’ must begin doing some introspection of what we are or have been doing, and make necessary...

The Appraisal Problem and Undue Diligence 8

The Appraisal Problem

Gone are the days of hiring a professional appraiser to solve the appraisal problem. For decades lenders have taken on the responsibility of shaping the appraisal process and dictating the solutions to the appraisal problem. Savvy appraisers push back in a positive fashion to try and enable the lender to receive a report that not only meets USPAP, FIRREA, Fannie Mae, or HUD/FHA/VA an UAD reporting guidelines, but also provides the client with a report that is clear, concise, accurate and not misleading. An appraisal report can be on time, have all the boxes checked, no inconsistencies, meet all the...

Grants to Help Train Appraisers 20

Grants to Help Train Appraisers

To establish grants directly to supervisor appraisers to help cover the training costs for each Trainee… Folks, this article appeared in American Banker on September 7, 2022. In my view, after reading it, the article appears to present a balanced perspective about what appraisers have been experiencing since the FIRREA law was mandated back in 1989. It also exposes problems with getting new people into the appraisal profession. If you have been paying attention to appraisal related activities over the years, you will recognize the names of people quoted in this American Banker article. One thing that has not been...

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