You’re going to absolutely love VaCAPs recent post about Phil Crawford’s podcast and CU.

As if CU by itself was not bad enough…NOW FNMA has given inducement to users (lenders and commissioned brokers) of CU to keep going back to the appraiser and trying to force them to manipulate it until it produces a desired result lower than 2.5%!

100% correct.

In my market area (and I assume many other older areas) what are termed 90% rebuilds are common. Essentially portions of an original foundation are retained (and added to) with one original wall (studs) also being retained. Everything else is new. A new Certificate of Occupancy is issued.

The property that may have started life as a 950 sf bungalow or ranch ends up being a 4,000 to 6,000 sf custom Mediterranean when its all done. What started as average quality is now raised to good to excellent. Its easy enough to understand and explain using generally accepted sound appraisal practices.

Its much less clear trying to force it to fit into UAD and FNMA artificial absolutes that they think never change.

I’ve had it with FNMA and similar idiots. Im doing real appraisals for people that hire me for professional services…not as a form filler.

As well I have seen many times where a property was purchased as an REO and completely updated and changed from a C4 to a C3 condition rating. Extensive updating changes the Q rating as well. You can never expect or demand an appraiser to report a property the same every time if the characteristics of that property change. That’s just common sense

Nothing ‘misleading’ about THAT practice, is there? Remember that state regulators will look at your report line by line as if looking through a straw. ALL they will see on the C line is the single entry. Either it is right or it is wrong.

I disagree with the recommendation from these purported “good appraisers” that understand CU. I have NO INTENTION of permitting an incompetent organization such as FNMA to dictate bad appraisal practices to me…directly or indirectly.

CU is flawed at its very core. It was designed and implemented with a database including appraisal reports up through 2014. Then in its February 2015 Lender Letter FNMA decided that in the past appraisers had been ‘appraising to artificial guidelines’ rather than to market…so they eliminated the guidelines.

…but they kept the database built out of those flawed appraisals.

Talk about circular thinking.

I have also had this discussion where Q’s and C’s are not absolute and to think they are is ridiculous. We have properties that are sold as a disposable property that is completely updated and placed back on the market. Anyone that has any common sense can see that Q’s and C’s are not absolute.

I can report confidently that virtually ALL the fears by appraisers that lenders /AMCs would routinely violate the terms of their license agreements with FNMA by shot-gunning alternate comps proved to be 100% warranted.

OUR professional work product has now not only been usurped for other unintended purposes some AMCs are now dictating that THEY OWN THE APPRAISAL!

Meaningful solutions will take time. In the meanwhile lets ALL start copyrighting our appraisal reports! Immediately! It may take awhile but FNMA, Corelogic and others that are data mining OUR work product without our express permission will eventually be successfully sued for doing it sometime down the road.

I wonder if consumers know THEY are paying for data compilation by FNMA in addition to appraisal coordination/ management by lenders under the guise of an “appraisal”?

The UCDP drives CU and the CU drives the AQM List and those appraisers who provide consistent data instead of reliable appraisals have nothing to worry about but those who provide reliable appraisals will ultimately be out of business and there is a difference in that. Not one appraiser on the AQM List has been reported to any state board by Fannie Mae because inconsistent opinionated data between appraisers is not a uspap violation however if your opinion doesn’t fit the status quo which Fannie labels as a peer then the CU will place you on the AQM List and out of a career because your reliable appraisals over time isn’t consistent with reliable consistent data needed to generate reliable output. There are approximately 900 appraisers on average each year in the U.S. who are disciplined for uspap violations and there are appraisers on the AQM List who have never been disciplined or had any complaints to their respective state of licensure so in other words Fannie Mae condones appraisers to violate uspap as Long as they produce consistent reliable data and not Reliable appraisals.

“Phil Crawford and I had an interesting discussion about what he calls “Chuck Upchuck.”  I have previously written that, to me, CU is “a giant electronic robot collecting tons of specific data from submitted appraisals.”

We recorded the podcast last Thursday (7/21/16), so it’s ‘fresh.’” ~ Dave Towne

isnt it amazing how utterly stupid and absurd the profession looks after you have finally managed to get yourself off of the roundabout?

not the first time i have heard that.

congrats to you Cynthia!

Excellent video. Few Americans are fortunate enough to ever discover their gift. I have read that over 80% of them hate their jobs (I suspect that it’s closer to 90%). The problem with most appraisers is that were fortunate enough to discover that appraising WAS their gift. Two now stand between appraisers using and enjoying their gift.

1. Bank Greed

2. Governmental Incompetence

After 2009 appraisers had 3 choices:

1. Pray for change

2. Unite as a group and force change

3. Walk away and pray that you can find something else that you are passionate about

4. Cling to appraising, hate your job, and try to make ends meet.

It’s pretty obvious that 1 & 2 never took place. The vast majority chose path number 4 and find themselves (temporarily) ecstatic because AMCs are paying them what they made TEN YEARS AGO. They conveniently ignore the fact that they are doing at least twice the work per order for 2006 wages are that they’ve been forced into becoming FHA home inspectors for no extra pay. They refuse to acknowledge that they’re liability is now at least ten times greater than it was prior to 2009.

Many of you fell in this line of work by default (family appraisers) and many more stumbled upon it pure chance. I personally spent years trying to find something that I was passionate about. I routinely put in 60 to 80 hour work weeks while appraising because to me it wasn’t even work.

Should you ever decide that option 3 is the intelligent choice you’ve likely made a great decision. The problem is that discovering your gift (something that you are passionate about and therefore very good at) is incredibly hard work. That my friends is why you still find so many appraisers clinging to a “career” that was transformed into a poor paying JOB in 2009.

If you’re willing to put in the work (hundreds of hours of soul searching) I assure you that you will be rewarded for the effort. Few are willing to put in such an effort.

As a pending sale with no former purchases or refinances in the past 10 years, please tell me Mr. CU robot how my carefully measured sketch (rounded to the nearest inch) materially differs from other appraisers who HAVE NEVER MEASURED THE PROPERTY? My 1,607 measured GLA is in line with the building brochures (my personal file / 15 years old) indication of 1,603 and absolutely discredits what has been pulled directly from public record files by the listing agent (1,881 sf).

Please explain Mr. CU robot how when the condo complex has only 2 like closed sales in the past 3 months (the only 2 for the entire complex) (my comps #1 and #2) and 2 active or pending sales (my comps #5 and #6), how are my comps materially different than the model selected comparables?

The system is severely flawed and my report does not warrant a 3 out of 5 risk rating, nor should my file that is kept by the powers that be reflect” There is a heightened risk of appraisal quality issues.

Although we are to assume “all parties are knowledgeable” when making there buying and selling decisions, this is a classical example where the system has failed. The only true independent and knowledgeable voice in this transaction has been me, however I’m the one being flagged with appraisal quality issues. Based on what the subject actually is (2 Br not 3, 1,607 sf not 1,881, etc.) the market value is $608,000 and no where near the contract price of $650,000.

Perhaps pictures are more up to your speed.

I’m so freaking glad I’m no longer appraising.