Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
Property Inspection Waiver, getting back to the old days of fogging a mirror… Appraisers, Effective 12/10/16, FNMA will have a new program in place which will allow LENDERS to waive appraisals on certain refi’s, if it is offered through the automated Desktop Underwriter (DU) loan documentation process. See the attached PDF. Key points from the PDF (emphasis mine): Property inspection waiver (PIW) is an offer to waive the appraisal for certain refinance transactions. Property Inspection Waiver offers are issued through Desktop Underwriter® (DU®) using Fannie Mae’s database of more than 20 million appraisal reports in combination with proprietary analytics from...
Consumer protection goes right out the door as consumers learn to trust these online valuations over a local, highly trained appraiser. Realtor Property Resource® is a private automated system just for Realtor® members. They are making great strides in promoting this service, and more and more agents are using this system to create their CMAs to present to owners. I recently reviewed a report provided by the listing agent which included sixty-nine pages of every imaginable piece of information. To an owner, this must look very impressive. However, to anyone who understands what a “Comparable” sale is, this report was...
How hybrid appraisals may impact your future Appraisers, A day or so ago, I found out about the rebranding of ZAIO into Clarocity, and their purchase of Valued Veterans AMC. The ‘new’ CEO of the Canadian/USA company, formerly ZAIO, now named Clarocity, was recently interviewed. Take the time to actually read this interview. If you have forgotten, ZAIO came into the US in about early 2008 or so with the intent to develop property data bases in most urban areas – with photos, that could be re-used by various entities. They sold ‘zones’ to a number of appraisers, expecting them...
Tell them they are NOT needed in the report. The march of many appraisers who blindly comply with AMC & other lender ‘demands’ to INCLUDE YOUR E&O BINDER PAGE and FULL SIZE LICENSE COPY in every report. Inclusion of your E&O Binder in reports is the quickest and easiest way to have your report challenged, and for you to be sued. Why would you want to do that? Inclusion of your license copy is absurd. Your license info is already in every single report you submit, or hadn’t you noticed that tidbit of info? If AMC clerks tell you that...
Refusing to ‘rubber-stamp’ a purchase price with an appraised value to match. Recently, there was a news story out of Atlanta, highlighting an appraiser who had refused to ‘rubber-stamp’ a purchase price with an appraised value to match. What followed was an increasingly disturbing trend to find another appraiser who would. According to the story (which was full of holes and unknowns), the second appraiser ignored comps in the subject’s neighborhood and found sales in a superior location to help support the purchase price. This situation was talked about on social media and a man who identified himself as a...
Very large lender who treats appraisers poorly… I received an email from an AMC I have not worked for before at 2:15 PM. They were looking for an appraiser to complete a 1004 report for a very large lender who treats appraisers poorly. The property is in a suburban/rural area, on 5 acres, about 30 minutes from my office. I responded that I could do it, but not until early NOVEMBER, due to being fully booked until then. I requested the rep let me know if that would work for the AMC, and if so, I would then provide my...
Sign VaCAP Open Letter to AMCs Fellow Appraisers, A few weeks ago, Virginia Coalition of Appraiser Professionals (VaCAP) sent out an open letter to the AMCs. This letter was republished by many coalitions, and appraiser groups across the country; liked and shared on Facebook and broadcast on several industry blogs. VaCAP received an overwhelmingly positive response from the letter. We even heard from several Realtors applauding our efforts! Activity is still ongoing with comments! Click here to read the letter and comments! We heard you loud and clear… The letter can now be signed by individual appraiser here on AppraisersBlogs. We will...
In my area, the Market Conditions data is basically worthless. Folks, One of the data analysis aspects I do in all reports is research sales trends of comparable properties, using MLS data, and making a graph to show report readers the actual market activity that has occurred over a long real estate cycle…usually 4-5 years back from the Effective Date. I use this to supplement, but not replace, the cruddy Market Conditions form, which poorly accounts for only 12 months of activity. In my area, the Market Conditions data is basically worthless. I’m sharing this because in the 8 years...
Where did those rating words come from? Why is it so many appraisers have trouble with UAD and the CU (Collateral Underwriter), and how to apply the Quality and Condition rating between the Subject and Comps? Not long after the UAD was implemented/mandated by FNMA (in 2011), and then the CU evaluation system came along, FNMA began discovering that many appraisers were improperly Rating the comps Quality and Condition AGAINST the Subject in the grid. And they began telling appraisers what they were finding. FNMA also discovered, and revealed, that many appraisers were using the same Comps over and over...
Some appraisers just say no and refuse to do assignments for low echelon AMCs fishing for cheapest and fastest appraisers… Folks, A very experienced Chief Appraiser, Mr. Greg Stephens, for the largest independently owned appraisal company in the US, Metro-West, has had an article published in National Mortgage Professional magazine, about the state of affairs concerning the so-called “appraiser shortage.” You can read the article here. While this article reveals important details based on appraiser population facts, there is a glaring omission. The omission is relative to “why” certain mortgage lending assignments are being delayed. It is different, and perhaps...
