Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
Do Associates Need to Be Licensed to Take Photos for a Property Inspection? I received a great question in my email the other day: I am writing on behalf of one of our appraisal managers who is a certified in Illinois. He wants to send one of his associates only to take the photos for a property inspection, but the associate is unlicensed. Is he authorized to do so, or would the associate need a temporary license of some kind? In some states this is considered clerical work, and some states are considered volunteer states, so a license is not required as long as the certified appraiser clarifies in the report who took the...
Bet you didn’t know that the adjustment grid is a form of Hedonic Regression! Appraisers, The new Collateral Underwriter electronic review process developed by Fannie Mae has many appraisers on edge. This will become the ‘ultimate authority’ or gold standard for reviewing appraisal reports as of January 26, 2015… at least as far as FNMA is concerned. Your reports will either ‘pass’ or ‘fail’, depending on many factors. Some of those factors are outside your immediate control. “Big Data” is one giant pile of stuff that is being put into the CU pot, stirred together like a stew. Except there...
Some Good News…For a Change? – 2nd Annual List (A Work-In-Progress) Last year, around Thanksgiving, I had put together a list of some positive things going on for appraisers. It was/is all-too-rare that we hear positive news regarding the appraisal profession. There is an awful lot of complaining that goes on, most of it justifiable, but little good news that gets shared. Part of the problem is that there is no central source for information regarding our profession which appraisers might utilize in order to find out what is going on across the country and affecting our profession, and could be used to...
So, here’s the situation; you are appraising a unique property in a limited area with few sales. You inspect the subject on Wednesday and finally get to the write up on Friday morning. As you are searching the neighborhood for sales, you notice a fairly comparable home that sold on the same street. It happens to be the very best comparable you have. The problem? It sold on Thursday…the day after the inspection date. Bummer! But, can you still use it? In order to answer this intriguing question, let’s step back for just a minute and look at the bigger picture....
Appraisers, Many know by now that the GSE’s, primarily Fannie Mae, have instituted a new ‘appraisal scoring’ procedure based on an electronic read of your reports, specifically on a SFR 1004 or the Condo 1073. Those are the only forms currently being analyzed by the CU process. On Nov. 18, 2014, FNMA released a document named “UCDP Fannie Mae Appraisal Messaging Change Notification” which you can find here. I encourage all appraisers to actually read this document … all 11 pages. When you do read this document, you will learn that your reports are being compared to your peer’s reports, and...
a la mode and National Data Collective Form Partnership to Offer Real Estate Data Services to Appraisers November 10, 2014 — Naples, FL — a la mode announced today that NDC (National Data Collective), a leading national provider of property data services for real estate professionals, has agreed to integrate its data services with a la mode’s full range of appraisal formfilling systems. NDC offers a subscription-based data service to appraisers covering more than 130 million properties in all 50 states, with full property profiles, assessor records, deed history and comparables data. Its products are available on desktop and mobile...
Online Petition to Allow appraiser Access to Data They Provided Through the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) Fellow appraiser, I am asking that you to take a moment to participate in this important industry effort. Fannie Mae’s Collateral Underwriter (CU) will be available in the first half of 2015. The CU performs automated risk assessment of appraisals submitted to the Uniform Collateral Data Portal based on information that you provided through the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD). The CU provides a risk score, flags, and messages to the lender. The GSE’s have mandated that all appraisals be submitted in the UAD format; however, currently...
HOA Fees but no PUD? It happened again this week. An appraisal was done, the report was turned into the AMC, and this was the revision request: “A preliminary review of your appraisal indicates that the HOA fee was filled out, but the PUD box and PUD section was left blank. Please fill out the PUD information and resend the report at your earliest convenience.” Ugh! I opened up the report and wrote a quick sentence or two in the Additional Comments section explaining that the subject has HOA fees for the private road maintenance, but it was not located...
FNMA New Collateral Underwriter to Check Appraisals Using Fannie’s Big Data FNMA Collateral Underwriter Flyer showing info about the FNMA Collateral Underwriter process they will make available to lenders (NOT APPRAISERS) in January 2015. You should review it. It has to do with their Enhancement of Risk Controls. This is what we know as Appraisal Quality Monitoring (AQM), which was announced almost 2 years ago. FNMA has already been using the ‘scope’ on your reports, but will soon allow the lenders to have access to the software so that they can do pre-submittal exams prior to uploading the loan file,...
A consumer class action complaint has been filed against a lender and its AMC relating to the subject matter of a prior CFPB investigation and settlement. Last August, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had taken action against Amerisave Mortgage Corporation, its affiliated AMC Novo Appraisal Management Company, and one of the owners of both companies Patrick Markert. Part of the CFPB’s action concerned alleged overcharging for appraisal services by the AMC and failure to disclose the AMC’s affiliation with the lender. Under a consent order, Amerisave and Novo agreed to pay $14.8 million in refunds to consumers and a $4.5 million...
