Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
Davinci for Android is a field data gathering and sketching tool for appraisers running on Google’s Android operating system (OS). Some of the features in Android which may not necessarily be available in other platforms are: Talk-to-type in any field: Android has a “voice input” button on the keyboard which will allow appraisers to use thir voice to enter data into fields. Appraisers can fill the entire inspection using voice input. Free turn-by-turn voice activated navigation provided within the OS: Turn-by-turn voice navigation is provided within the Android OS at no additional charge. Appraisers can use it as a GPS...
…excluded from Reasonable and Customary fee surveys… The American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) / Guild 44 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, AFL-CIO met with Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) on April 14 to discuss the Guild’s concerns with the Federal Reserve Board’s Interim Final Rule (Rule) regarding Appraiser Independence. With the implementation of the Rule issued April 1, 2011, the Federal Reserve has introduced faulty regulation that implicitly fails to capture Congressional intent to reform the appraisal process and Appraiser Independence and the necessity to promote the use of market driven, Reasonable & Customary (R&C) fees for various...
Lenders May Still Profit Most from Appraisal Fees, writes Kenneth Harney WASHINGTON — When you pay $450 to $550 at settlement for an appraisal on a home purchase or refinancing, do you assume that all or most of the money is going to the appraiser who comes to the house and performs the valuation? That’s logical, but probably not correct. Despite new Federal Reserve regulations that took effect April 1 requiring lenders to pay appraisers fair fees, growing numbers of them say they are still being offered $200 to $250 — even as low as $134 — for work that...
Where To Direct Questions and Comments Regarding Customary and Reasonable Fees There has been a lot of confusions about where appraisers can direct questions and comments regarding customary and reasonable fees. The Appraisal Subcommittee has recently posted the following information: The appropriate agency to receive your concern about a creditor’s compliance with the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), including the creditor or the creditor’s agent paying an appraiser a customary and responsible fee, is the agency that enforces TILA for the creditor. If the agent or appraisal management company (AMC) is affiliated with a federally-regulated creditor, the appropriate agency to receive...
Required as of September 1, 2011, the Uniform Appraisal Dataset or UAD changes how appraisers fill out the URAR and 2055. a la mode UAD solution let the appraiser fill out the form as easily and quickly as possible. There are no pop up windows with okay or cancel buttons. Clicking into a field simply expands part of the form if necessary where appraisers can check any boxes, select any appropriate pull downs, and fill out any additional comments. Tabbing or clicking out of the field will automatically combine the appraiser’s answer in the exact format that the GSEs need....
Appraisers online petition opposing use of AMC fees as Customary & Reasonable Please consider signing the online petition launched by appraisers and written by George Hatch, opposing the use of AMC fees as Customary & Reasonable: Federal Reserve Board to Clarify Customary and Reasonable Appraisal Fees On October 18, 2010, the Federal Reserve Board announced an interim final rule to Regulation Z of Title 12, also known as the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). One of the elements to Regulation Z is a binding requirement upon creditors and appraisal management companies to ensure that appraisers who are not employees of...
Dave Towne developed this UAD Quick Reference Guide (QRG). The UAD is the most significant change to report preparation since national forms were adopted in the early 1960’s. His reference guide condenses the current 37 page UAD Appendix D manual into 5 basic ½ sheet pages, plus a conversion chart for the site size (since many counties report small sizes as a digital portion of an acre). It is organized so that appraisers can reference page 1 & 2, depending on which page in the report is being worked on. Definitions and other details are also included, taken from the...
Who to Call? Fellow appraisers, peers, coalition members and all who work as professional real estate appraisers, we ask for your help. Federal Law known as the Dodd-Frank Act went into effect on April 1, 2011. It clearly states and intends that real estate appraisers be paid “Reasonable and Customary” fees for appraisals performed by state licensed and certified real estate appraisers. Reasonable and customary, generally means what appraisers in a geographic area are generally paid based on a survey of such fees. The survey is supposed to be of fees paid by such entities as the Department of Veterans...
WinTOTAL merging tutorial If you are a WinTOTAL user, you may be in in the habit of starting a report by cloning a template instead of merging a template. This class shows you how to start a report by merging a template instead of cloning it, or merging different sections of a report or several reports. Cloning overwrites everything while merging fills in the blanks. In other words, you can merge parts of one report or several reports over and over again without overwriting the fields you have already filled in. For example, let’s say you have done a report...
A new frontier in appraising is upon us… Approximately 30 years ago the automobile industry began to introduce computers into cars and since that time they have never been the same. What was once considered a rather simple procedure – tuning up your engine or even changing the spark plugs – has become an almost impossible project for anyone, except the highly trained automobile technician. Today nearly every aspect of your car is aided or controlled in some manner by a computer. Digital radios with CD players, climate control systems, cruise control and pollution control devices are just a few...
