True. Heck they could even require a six month payment escrow account so they could even sell technical first payment defaults as seasoned loans. Immediate response is, “Oh no. We have protections in place to prevent that.”

Just like the protections in place when Congress directed TAF to develop USPAP and USPAP had a REQUIREMENT that it be reviewed in the context of its intended use, by competent PEERS!

Current state trend is to look for legal, factual interpretations rather than common sense reviews in context of intended use as perceived by peers. TAFs resident attorney ASB member, and allegedly Ms Hambleton can be thanked for that.

Protect the American Public’s Trust? Sure. Just like one can buy the Brooklyn Bridge or get rich buying Florida swamp land. Appraisers AND the public have been betrayed.

Bill,

There has always been explanations for differing Price. One common one is that the escrow reported on the final decision rather than the price going into escrow. Sales Prices = comps are arranged by several parties, ain’t nothing perfect, a concession was taken out of the loan, a seller’s debt was paid by the buyer, the HOA fees were paid in advance, Lots of stuff happens out there, and that is the main reason for an analyse by people not silicon chips.

Cert,

fifty + yrs ago lenders, banks etc were responsible for their loans. They didn’t resell them until the loan was aged and proven. They actually set the market, when savings were strong and the coffers  were full they made lots of generous loans, during the winters they just raised rates and did public relations, the in house appraisers returned to the teller’s window.

FANNIE & Freddie slowly became political and took responsibility for debt both contracted and implied. Tranches of debt flowed more evenly during the years, and the market flourished.

Did your 401 increase???

All appraisers have ever done was report, the monied have always had control

I can’t believe anyone would claim 2008 cannot repeat itself while we are replicating the exact same market conditions just as fast as we are able! All while removing nearly every protective measure put in place to stop its recurrence.

The number of errors in CoreLogic RealQuest; Realist & Matrix is beyond incidental or periodic. In some areas they are wrong MOST of the time (land use and zoning for example). IN other areas such as acreage conversions to SF they have substantial rounding errors that produce net sf errors that always have to be separately explained in reports. When used in automated models, these types of reports produce hugely erroneous results. Other frequent errors are reported room counts, bedrooms and more recently quality and condition ratings.

Yet federal regulators & other advocates of AVMs are more than willing to write these off as statistically irrelevant. Even when we prove over and over again that RealAVM point values are 5% to 50% in error. Or that “ranges of value can run from 10% low to 30% high. A range that is so wide as to be misleading as a value indication for any purpose.

With the ability to now see your peers comp information via A la modes SmartExchange, I don’t think there’s been enough raging on appraisers. I used a comp today where the MLS said it sold for $670,000, but public tax records said it sold for $660,000. Per SmartExchange, four other appraisers used the MLS sales price instead of the what proved to be correct, public tax records.($10,000 difference). Proved, meaning it took a phone call to the agent who acknowledged her mistake, and who later in the day updated the MLS.

Seek the truth.

TruthBtold – you are right On the money. Based upon thousands of threads and put downs regarding the quality of another’s Appraisers  work, on various Appraiser venues, read by Lenders, regulators and the general public Appraisers don’t even respect each other, why would anyone else.

I have never ever seen another profession rag on themselves the way Appraisers do.

I’ll take wisdom in real estate for 2,000 please Alex…

Appraiser need to stop doing desk valuations… it not good for us and its not good for public trust.

Aggressive realty agents count on it. Scooting the human full inspection appraiser out of the picture would be a godsend to the most aggressive salespersons out there. Their footprint is already increasing with the diminished quality of the appraisers services over the past 10 years.

My dream is to not pay a mortgage bill and own this home completely. If one ponders consumer spending power, the ability to thrive and have savings, one naturally seeks to eliminate the largest bill on a permanent basis. I wonder if all those people whom went cash out and bill pay during refinance realize they paid a minimum of 1.90c for each 1 dollar they borrowed to do so? Amoritizing debt over a 30 year period ain’t cheap. But it sure is easy with online mortgage apps, to simply click that debt away. My indebted principal amount only goes one direct, down.

Excellent analysis and advice Baggs!

That’s not theory, it happens every day everywhere.

It’s been such a wildly profitable venture, they want more of it. Enter raised demins, avm’s, hybrids, rocket mortgages, and never ending advocacy against safe carefully crafted loan approaches.

Smart consumers should recognize this dangerous landscape and take care to prioritize paying the note off and achieving actual home ownership as the highest priority. The lenders are like standing armies, standing between Americans and private property. You don’t own it until the very last payment is made. The only regular justification for refinancing is a notable interest rate reduction, or capturing a shorter note term. If you engage in any of these activities, you’re doing it wrong; refi for cash out, refi to higher rate, refi to longer term, paying point premiums at a brokerage when you could otherwise have saved that point at the credit union, or engage in a new mortgage loan via solicitation when you otherwise would not have done so, you’re doing it wrong. If a salesman calls you about a refinance, be afraid, be very afraid. If you’re getting advice for real estate from a tech nerd and software wizard, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re trusting in a salesman or commission based person to be honest, you’re doing it wrong. If you don’t take a minute to think about it, you’re doing it wrong. If you don’t know down to the dollar what your ‘cash equivalent’ savings or losses would be over the entire length of the term proposals, you’re doing it wrong. Who owns your home? If you’re diddling around with one button instant mortgages, it’s not you…

The top article which Dave linked to, is from a tech advocate at Quicken loans. Yeah… We need more of this?

Top 3,616 Reviews and Complaints about Quicken Loans – CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM

we commonally make too little of our own work and our own experience. Math is a part of our observation, neighborhoods are a part of local news. We tooo often use another’s pricing for our living wage. Only we can do something, lets do it ! Raise your price !

For far too long we have allowed the “absolutists” and mathematicians to lay claim that everything we do can be accurately quantified. They choose to forget (or redefine) that our profession is both science and an art. In balance.

Ask the Zillow CEO where his program “estimated” his house at 1.4 mil than closed for 1 mil. Hmmm…wonder how that would effect things. Aaa what are worried about the big guys before never went to jail, so no worries.

As for desktops me personally I do not perform them. Just about every time a client asks me to complete one and I turn it down in comes a driveby for the same property @ 4 1/2 times the desktop fee. Your business your choice.

I do the occasional desktop valuation, but not the $50-$60 a piece valuations for lenders. Appraisers need to charge accordingly. If appraisers don’t place value on their own work product, neither will anyone else.