Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
Appraisers, The Mortgage Bankers Association tracks applications and publishes info weekly. There has been an incredible jump in applications by +49%! Huge! Means we’ll start getting busy in about a week or so. Click here for more info. For appraisers who do FHA assignments, it’s likely that those assignments will be fewer now through January 25. On the 26th, the Mortgage Insurance Premium cost applying to FHA backed loans will drop significantly. This will allow more borrowers to qualify for FHA loans. With this change, FHA has allowed lenders to ‘drop’ a previously accepted Case Number from the current loan doc, and are...
Network of State Appraisal Orgainzation’s letter to FHFA Director Watt Regarding Fannie Mae Collateral Underwriter (CU) Program For over the past couple of months, VaCAP has participated with 18 other State Appraiser Coalitions in drafting an unified response to Fannie Mae’s Collateral Underwriter Program. Their letter to FHFA Director Watt briefly outlines their concerns, offers recommended solutions, as well as asking for a meeting to discuss the issue for the benefit of all vested parties. Please take a few minutes to peruse the letter below: Dear Director Watt: On behalf of the independent state professional appraiser organizations signing below, I...
Place this statement into your canned comments as it can serve you well. I received a copy of Ken Harney’s recent CU article today via email. The article was sent from an old appraiser contact that remembered me from the fight that I was leading to boycott AMCs from 2009 to 2010. Ken Harney is undoubtedly the best friend an appraiser could ever have in the national media as he was the only syndicated columnist willing to cover the injustice of HVCC. He and I exchanged several emails during those days. I found no ground breaking news within his article....
CENSUS TRACTS are based primarily on POPULATION density… The latest ‘buzz word’ in our profession is an indication from Fannie Mae that as of Jan. 26, 2015, their Collateral Underwriter electronic review software (made available only to Lenders/AMC’s for 1004 and 1073 reports) will be able to compare your report info to other property reports and data narrowed down to a local CENSUS TRACT. In my previous messages, I’ve asked a basic question: When’s the last time you actually researched comparable sales or other property info based around local CENSUS TRACTS? I would guess for the vast majority of (residential)...
Fannie Mae Claims the CU Process Will “Improve Appraisals.” A Pipedream or Reality? Appraisers, A few days ago, I watched the FNMA eLearning webinar “Introduction to CU” video showing how their new Collateral Underwriter will be implemented, starting on Jan. 26, 2015, applying to 1004 and 1073 Reports (initially). You really should watch this also! CU applies to FANNIE MAE only; FreddieMac, VA, FHA, USDA are not involved at this time. Click this link, and you’ll find the link to the video ½ way down on the left. I captured a few screen shots of their presentation to help explain...
Major Change in Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide Appraisers and report reviewers, Fannie Mae issued an update to their Selling Guide on 12/16/14. It contains this pretty major change to their guidelines: Adjustments to Comparable Sales As a result of an analysis of Uniform Appraisal Dataset data specific to comparable adjustments, Fannie Mae has eliminated the 15% net and 25% gross adjustment guidelines and has provided clarification with respect to Fannie Mae’s expectations for the appraiser to analyze the market for competitive properties and provide appropriate market based adjustments without regard to limits on the size of the adjustments. Updated Selling Guide...
The Appraiser Qualifications Board of The Appraisal Foundation on Dec. 2 released a new exposure draft of proposed revisions to the 2015 Real Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria. Among the revisions is a requirement that all applicants for real property appraiser credentials have a background that does not call into question public trust. To meet that requirement, applicants must provide state appraiser regulatory agencies with all information and documentation necessary for a jurisdiction to determine an applicant’s fitness for licensure. An applicant will not be eligible for an appraiser credential if they have been convicted of or pleaded guilty or nolo...
A federal judge said he will not unseal files related to an alleged appraisal rigging scheme that Washington Mutual launched in an effort to favor mortgage lenders just before the 2008 market crash, Courthouse News Service reported Dec. 3. The case involves a federal class action suit launched in 2008 in San Jose, California, by Felton Spears Jr. and Sidney Sholl who claimed that Washington Mutual, Lender’s Service Inc. and appraisal management firm First American eAppraiseIT colluded in 2006 to create inflated mortgage-loan appraisals that allowed the bank to sell aggregated security interests in the properties at inflated prices. At...
Anyone who appraises real property long enough stands a decent chance of being swept up in a divorce. Someone else’s. There you are, minding your own business…opening the snail mail in hopes that your clients have finally sent those checks when… A subpoena pops out accompanied by a check for some chump-change amount. What you discover is a subpoena originating from a law firm you never heard of…about a couple getting divorced whose name is unfamiliar…but the property address looks vaguely familiar. Of course! You appraised this house in 2012…for a refi. But now some strange lawyer wants you to bring this dusty refi report to court with you…next Tuesday! Upon receiving a subpoena the natural first reaction for many...
Appraisers should be concerned by Fannie Mae’s lack of transparency about its Appraiser Quality Monitoring system (AQM). In their published guidance and in various interviews, in the upcoming print edition of WRE (January 2015) and elsewhere, they remain mum on the specifics of a process that can potentially end an appraiser’s career. If they have rules, procedures and guidelines in place to evaluate the work of appraisers in a fair and consistent manner, they are not making the details public. We believe it’s time that they do so. This is from the cover story in the upcoming print edition of...
