Category: USPAP

Appraisal news for real estate appraisers and real estate professionals regarding the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). News relating to the Appraisal Industry.

The MLS Interior Photo Blackout & UAD 3.6 25

The MLS Interior Photo Blackout & UAD 3.6

The rollout of UAD 3.6 creates a massive data clash, leaving us completely unable to verify comparable sales just as Bright MLS launches new controls to hide interior photos and property details. A home inspector recently posted a video on Facebook that highlights exactly what our profession is facing with data privacy. He was sounding the alarm to consumers and professionals, warning them about how cloud reporting software silently piped private property defect data straight to corporate risk pools. It is a message that resonates deeply with appraisers, who have been screaming into the void about data exploitation for years....

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending / UAD / Uniform Appraisal Dataset

UAD 3.6 and the Danger of Corporate Pragmatism 61

UAD 3.6 and the Danger of Corporate Pragmatism

The rollout of the new UAD 3.6 framework has triggered a major wave of compliance literature, and a perfect example is a recent article by Woody Fincham at Valuation Nation, titled “Certification 25: What’s the Real Risk to the Appraiser?”. In his piece, Woody sets aside the rhetoric and lists my AppraisersBlogs article regarding our legal defenses under this dataset as a citation reference at the end of his post. While he acknowledges the existence of this perspective, his broader argument claims that the legal risks of signing Certification 25 are low, the threat of regulatory discipline is minimal, and...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / E&O

Our Metrics, Their Millions: Exposing the Backdoor Data Rush 15

Our Metrics, Their Millions: Exposing the Backdoor Data Rush

If you still think the corporate panic over structural data is just a theoretical debate about software licensing, a tech startup named Arloh just blew the entire script wide open. They have been running public marketing campaigns targeting small title, escrow, and appraisal firms with a staggering proposition: “Your old records could be worth millions.” One of their primary advertisements explicitly brags that a tiny 37-person title and escrow shop just received a ~$967,000 estimate simply for licensing their historical data archive for artificial intelligence training models. Let that dollar figure sink in for a second. Nearly one million dollars...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice / USPAP

Inspectors Blocked the Door, Appraisers Handed Over the Keys 39

Inspectors Blocked the Door, Appraisers Handed Over the Keys

A fellow appraiser dropped a direct message in my inbox with a link to home inspector Preston Kincaid’s Facebook video, and watching him warn the public sent a chill through me because his words mirrored the exact warnings I have been shouting about our own appraisal profession. To understand the shock, you first need to know what Spectora is and how home inspectors work. Spectora is the dominant cloud software platform used by roughly 7,000 independent home inspectors across the country to draft, format, and deliver digital property inspection reports. By law and standard contract, home inspectors operate under strict...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM

UAD 3.6 Erases My Legal Defenses: Insurance Industry Agrees 38

UAD 3.6 Erases My Legal Defenses: Insurance Industry Agrees

The insurance industry just verified the erasure of my legal defenses under UAD 3.6. The corporate apologists and tech insiders have spent weeks trying to downplay the Certification 25 confidentiality crisis. They’ve lined up to tell independent appraisers that the new language is just a passive weather report, a routine disclosure, or an innocent acknowledgement of a reality that has existed for many years. But the ultimate reality check just arrived from the very people who calculate risk for a living, and it completely blows the corporate defense strategy out of the water. Isaac Peck, Publisher of Working RE Magazine...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / E&O / Errors & Omissions

Cert 25 Dilemma: TAF Abdicates Its Role as Ethics Arbiter 84

Cert 25 Dilemma: TAF Abdicates Its Role as Ethics Arbiter

We finally have a direct written response from The Appraisal Foundation regarding the Cert 25 confidentiality crisis and it is a masterclass in bureaucratic buck passing. A peer recently contacted TAF to ask how appraisers can remain compliant with the USPAP Ethics Rule while signing a form that opens the floodgates for data distribution. TAF basically hid under their desks. They claimed they cannot give legal advice and told us that questions about Cert 25 are best suited for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since they built the form. Then they dropped this standard canned line to try and brush...

ACI / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisal Software / Appraisers News

Certification 25 and the Quiet Breach of Appraiser Confidentiality 67

Certification 25 and the Quiet Breach of Appraiser Confidentiality

Certification 25 made me realize that my refusal to participate in UAD 3.6 was justified long before I even knew what was buried in its certifications. A peer sent me Phil Crawford’s new podcast episode this morning, and I opened it without thinking much of it because I had assumed his retirement from the show meant he was done weighing in on industry developments. I have been following the news and the chatter around 3.6, but I haven’t been preparing for it. I have not taken any UAD 3.6 classes, have not attended any seminars, have not tested the form,...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / The Appraisal Foundation / Trending

Who Controls Access in UAD 3.6 33

Who Controls Access in UAD 3.6

Access has become the most expensive word in the appraisal industry, a reminder that every new “solution” seems to cost appraisers more while giving them less control.  Today’s Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you, and the space he invades, he gets by on you. Those words feel strangely appropriate as the appraisal profession moves into UAD 3.6. The new appraisal environment is not simply a revised form. It is a data-rich, data-driven system built around large amounts of property information being routed directly into appraisal software. Matrix MLS systems already exchange structured data through API-based pathways using standards such...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Software / Appraisal Technology / Appraisers News / Trending

Appraiser Independence: What Does it Mean & Who Does it Apply to 10

Appraiser Independence: What Does it Mean & Who Does it Apply to

Why It Matters Appraiser independence is mandated by state and federal laws – not a professional courtesy. Every agent, broker, loan officer, lender and AMC involved in a transaction with a lender-ordered appraisal is legally prohibited from influencing the appraiser’s value conclusion and from interfering in the appraisal process. Violations can cost you your license, trigger federal civil penalties, NAR sanctions, civil liability, and in extreme cases, criminal prosecution.1 “I didn’t know” is not a defense. The Legal Foundation Three federal frameworks govern this area. Title XI of FIRREA (1989) requires all appraisals for federally related transactions to be performed...

Appraisal News / Appraisers News / CFPB / Consumer Financial Protection Bureau / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / NAR

It’s Time to Take Out the Junk: AMC Practices Exposed 42

It’s Time to Take Out the Junk: AMC Practices Exposed

Appraisers have spent years carrying the weight of broken AMC practices, and this article pulls every one of those practices into the sunlight so the profession can finally take out the junk. “Evil AMCs thrive not only through active malice, but also through the silence and inaction of those appraisers who could intervene.” — Edmund Burke… if he had been an appraiser It’s a conversation we’ve all had before: “I’ve already got all my information entered. I’m used to the system. I don’t want to learn a new process. I guess I’ll just keep paying the extra couple of dollars...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending