Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
Appraisers, I just received notice about the untimely death due to COVID-19 of a Tennessee appraiser, Stephen Forrester, while he and his wife and two young kids were on vacation in the Bahamas. Details are posted below. Please click here, and donate if you can. I just donated to this GoFundMe. If you can’t make a donation, it would be great if you could share the fundraiser via email to appraisers you know, and on social media, to help spread the word. By the way, Stephen has been Certified licensed since 2003. The National Association of Appraisers (NAA) would like...
…I’ve discovered a potential anomaly in Desktop reports (and Hybrids also) which might shock some appraisers… Desktop Appraisals, Panaceas for Faster Reports. Or so they say. Bankrate.com has a revealing article published on Oct. 27, 2021, titled As Appraiser Shortage Delays Closings, Mortgage Giants Try Workaround | Bankrate FHFA (the GSE’s “manager”), after the administration change, under pressure from mortgage brokers and lenders, and after the experiment with the COVID era “flexibilities”, has decided to allow the GSE’s to accept a new type of appraisal for first mortgage (purchase) lending early in 2022: the Desktop report. The current line of thinking...
The desktop appraisals are not necessarily more reliable, which could become an adverse issue for appraisers in the future… Appraisers, we learned about this late on Monday, Oct. 18, 2021: Sandra L. Thompson, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) appeared before the Mortgage Bankers Association annual conference on Monday. Her remarks to that group featured this: The “flexibilities” (i.e., the desktop appraisals) put in place for appraisers after COVID-19 hit, have ended. However, FHFA has been reviewing the data gathered during their use and examined feedback from lenders and other parties. She told the MBA attendees that both...
Brian Stevens of NREP questions why no evidence has been put forward to support systemic racism in appraising. He proposes that a comprehensive non-partisan study of the industry be conducted before labeling an entire industry with easy and cheap terms like “systemic”. So we have all heard the story about systemic racism in residential appraising. There have been a handful of cases where it’s been determined that appraisers have brought appraisals in low based on the homeowner’s race. Now I don’t know if this is true and you don’t know if this is true. We don’t know the value, the...
The ASC Wants And Has The Funds To Make USPAP Free! And More! This press release is seismic for appraisers so please read it: Press Release: Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) Board Approves Fiscal Year 2022 Budget of $9M including nearly $5M in Grant and Technical Assistance Funding With the context of TAF’s bat-shit crazy letter, here are some key changes in the relationship between TAF and ASC: ASC wants USPAP to be free, enable diversification of the ASB and AQB which are NOT diversified and never have been and they want to study alternatives to the insanely wasteful two-year USPAP update...
…any suspicion of a discriminatory appraisal by the holder of a real estate appraiser license… Folks in the Golden State, here’s something you’d better keep a very keen eyeball on: Appraiser Discrimination – AB 948 (Holden) Signed by Gov. Newsom This law requires a purchase agreement in a real estate transaction to inform a seller and buyer of the opportunity to report, through the Department of Consumer Affairs’ internet website or telephone number, any suspicion of a discriminatory appraisal by the holder of a real estate appraiser license. Furthermore, it would require such a notice to be provided by a...
Fannie Mae wants to hear from you about racial bias in appraisals. The survey closes on October 3, 2021. News media reports alleging racial bias in home appraisals have turned a spotlight on the appraisal process in the mortgage industry. We at Fannie Mae take allegations of appraisal bias seriously, and as one of the largest consumers of residential appraisals in the United States, we want to make sure we are doing all we can to identify and help prevent it. Many of the conversations on this topic have excluded appraisers. To help us address appraisal bias from all perspectives,...
“Digitizing the entire appraisal process”… what does this even mean? No more tape measures? No more typing? What exactly is being digitized that is not already digitized?… This is what Class Valuation appears to be doing to justify their actions. According to the article written by Richard Torne in Mortgage Professional America, Class Valuation has announced the acquisition of DataMaster. From the article: “We’re not replacing the appraiser, we’re empowering them” We share a common belief in the true path to the future, which is not to replace the appraiser but to empower them. Appraisers have had their fair share...
Could this be another reason why so many real estate appraisers refuse to do bifurcated hybrid appraisals? Recently, a Mueller Services ‘inspector’ posted a comment on the article titled “Mueller Sample Report. You Decide!“. Could this be another reason why so many real estate appraisers refuse to do bifurcated hybrid appraisals? It goes without saying that bifurcated hybrid appraisals are uniformly performed by very low paid, with third grade level writing skills, untrained property ‘inspectors’ using a checklist – but with no appraisal training and skill. Tbhiitsch: Ah yes, Ive worked for Mueller services. It’s an easy job kind of,...
Brian Stevens of NREP discusses vaccines mandates in a video blog and whether real estate companies have the right to mandate vaccinations for agents who see see themselves as independent contractors. The video got a fair amount of attention. A good deal of comments were unfavorable to the vaccines mandate. COVID, our current seven day average right now with COVID cases is 145,724 cases with 36,953 cases on September 12 alone. These numbers are about half of the COVID high back in January 9 which was 253,946 cases… Here is the thing, RedFin, Warburg Realty, Remax and Coldwell Banker Bain,...
