Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
Professional OPINIONS have value that can never, repeat NEVER be replaced by automation… Earlier this week, George Dell‘s article titled “Why is Residential Appraisal in Trouble?” was published on AppraisersBlogs. Respectfully, George misses or misinterprets a few items. There has been zero evidence that an AVM produces credible approximations of MARKET VALUE consistently or with even an acceptable degree of variance. None. Like George indicates, an AVM is NOT an appraisal. By definition, it is not an appraisal. FIRREA required appraisal standards; NOT banking industry and TAF proposed alternatives. TAF is very far out of line giving AVMs any imprimatur...
Why is Residential Appraisal in trouble? Is Residential Appraisal Finished?… There will soon be no need for residential appraisers. I remember years ago, doing education for my merging AIREA/SREA chapter(s) in San Diego. AVMs were just coming to our attention. I invited a MAI who happened to also be a PhD in economics, Phil Mitchell. The room was full. Someone asked about those “automated algorithmic computer calculated appraisals.” Could a canned program do as well as an appraiser? Without hesitation, he answered: “Not only will these models be able to appraise – they will do it better!” That was 24 years ago. He was right, partially. I...
There is a new outfit sending emails designed to extract dollars from appraisers, with the message “you need us to market your appraisal service.” The name in their email is: Appraiser Directory. I decided to forensically check this outfit. Their registered “business address” for their web site is actually a UPS Shipping Center business on Sunset Blvd, in Los Angeles. But there is no person’s name tied to that registration. Is it a good deal to send this suspicious outfit $30 to theoretically advertise your business for a year? You’ll have to decide for yourself. But I’ll bet you know...
Fast Connections USA, Inc. & its President, Towhindul Hussain, were found guilty of hundreds of violations… Well it must be true what they say… Don’t mess with Texas! The Texas Appraisal Licensing and Certification Board (TALCB) has issued a monetary fine of $2,801,500 against an appraisal management company. Fast Connections USA, Inc. and its President, Towhindul Hussain, were found guilty of hundreds of violations of Texas law and regulations. TALCB found Fast Connections contracted 274 appraisals in Texas without proper registration. These violations have a mandatory fine of $10,000 each. TALCB also found Fast Connections USA failed to pay appraisers...
Back in early February on Appraisalville, I questioned a new definition that appeared in USPAP for the term “misleading.” Many others took to their platforms to criticize it, such as Phil Crawford of the Voice of Appraisal podcast and Dave Towne, a prolific writer of all things that keep appraisers sane. Dave writes today: Gad zooks… I (and lots of others) hope and wish the Appraisal Standards Board would QUIT making changes to USPAP every friggin’ two years! There is no way to satisfy everyone’s individual perspective as to how USPAP should be written. Here is the problematic definition from the current version of USPAP. While...
“It’s a dud” is the unofficial results on bifurcated appraisals from the OREP / WorkingRE Magazine Appraisal Bifurcation Survey in the print edition of Working RE Magazine that is hitting your mailbox now, an overwhelming majority of appraisers want nothing to do with these products. Less than 10% of the respondents stated they were open to bifurcation products as the appraiser and only slightly more, 13.64% were open to data collection assignments. Fees, liability and a detriment to the profession were the main reasons appraisers will not consider only the data collection assignments. The survey is still ongoing, but with...
It is not misleading to use a 1004 form for a desktop or a drive-by because, during these convoluted times… In talking with Tim Andersen, a USPAP instructor and long-experienced appraiser, I was reminded that, even in the time of C-19, USPAP applies, and appraisals must still be credible. Reports must still not mislead. USPAP has never required the appraiser to inspect the property. That is a lender construct. So long as your scope of work is clear relative the level of inspection you provided, and why that was your scope of work, you should not have a problem. Note...
A key issue is Congress’s thirst for the income the two GSEs generate since they paid off their bailouts… Will separation happen? I found this info in the Mortgage News Daily e-newsletter by Jann Swanson on May 19, 2020: From the article “Fannie/Freddie Seek Financial Advisor to Help Them Exit Conservatorship”: “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) have taken what each is calling an important step toward ending their 12 years of operating under conservatorship. Each has announced they are about to issue a request for proposals (RFP) to secure a financial advisor to facilitate that move. In a...
And there is another type of defiant. “The government should stay out of our business…” Believe or don’t believe. Is there a parallel between appraisals and how people respond to pandemic warnings? Appraisal reviewers decide whether an appraisal is “worthy of belief” (“credible”) or not. Similarly, people decide whether to believe in the need for public health orders. Steven Dinkin (president of the National Conflict Resolution Center) recently had some observations on the public’s response to the pandemic, dividing people into two groups: defiant or compliant. What is interesting is that each group has a belief that their thinking is the right thinking. Their opinion is the right opinion. Let’s look...
you are a FEE appraiser, not a FREE appraiser. Do not continue doing business with AMCs who don’t pay you in a timely manner per your state law… There’s an old phrase, whose origination is not precisely known, which says “mind your p’s and q’s.” What it means is ‘watch what you are doing’, or various other aspects of life. How many of you realize that the AMC business model as we currently experience, it is actually a Ponzi scheme in operation? Remember Bernie Madoff? That kind of scheme. It’s been publicized recently in various places that several AMCs, including...
