Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
Here we are over 3 and a half years after the article titled “I Do Not Quit, Not Ever!“. No one has quit yet. AGA™ is now a tax-exempt 501(c)(6). We have successfully renegotiated our affiliation agreement with OPEIU and AFL-CIO. The articles of incorporation revised our previous articles of association. In the past two years Jan Bellas and the National Appraiser Peer Review Committee have helped in excess of 185 appraisers get off blacklists; be reinstated with lenders and assisted those wrongfully accused in defending themselves before state regulatory agencies. Anyone that’s dealt with Jan Bellas KNOWS she doesn’t...
National Appraisers Forum is one of the best appraiser groups with a wealth of info participants share freely on a wide number of topics… Appraisers, if you would like to learn from highly qualified peers (other than me! :), post questions, or offer your own comments, consider joining the FREE group, National Appraisers Forum (NAF). Use this link. This group used to be one of the Yahoo groups, but Yahoo is shutting down groups, so National Appraisers Forum has moved to ‘groups.io’ as its home base. If you are not already a ‘participant’ of NAF, the sign-up is easy. If...
Fannie and Freddie Will Fail! That comes straight from Dr. Mark Calabria, the Federal Housing Finance Director that oversees Fannie and Freddie! In a prepared statement given to the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, FHFA Director Mark Calabria did not hold back in his comments. But in their current condition, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will fail in a downturn. The testimony of Dr. Calabria before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services was geared around affordable housing goals. Blame is given to local zoning, land use restrictions, environmental regulations, onerous building codes and permitting...
Verdi Consulting has no business being involved with appraisals… they have fraud examiners that should have done some due diligence on Clarocity… Nope, not going to happen… I received an email from what appeared to be from USDA. As a long time USDA appraiser, I opened the email: Verdi Consulting, Inc. has been engaged by the United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development Office as one of two vendors under a Blanket Purchase Agreement (“BPA”) for Nationwide Single-Family Housing Origination Appraisals. The USDA has provided your information as a preferred incumbent Vendor Appraiser. We would like to invite you to...
No system that continues to allow (or limit) defining appraisal complexity to the lender or AMC will ever achieve reasonable, or fair compensation for the appraiser…. We need to do much better than “half a loaf” in our appraisal legislative efforts. Especially when that half loaf does no more than enshrine continued price-fixing by lenders; with the support & blessing of REVAA… WorkingRE published news of recent House of Representatives action. The Bill addresses consumer disclosure of AMC fees among other issues. While the American Guild of Appraisers applauds the efforts of those that worked in good faith on this,...
…appraisers may finally have a chance at making the goal of fee transparency a reality… Keep your eyes open, events are happening fast. Ever since the passage of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) in 2010 and the monumental rise of Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs), one of the main issues appraisers have pressed for is transparency for consumers in terms of the fee split between appraisers and AMCs. Specifically, how much of the actual “Appraisal Fee” being paid by the consumer goes to the licensed real estate professional and how much is withheld by the AMC “manager.” Now, over...
When North Dakota re-applied for a state-wide waiver, the appraisal industry was nearly unanimous in outrage at the audacity of the state to apply for one in the first place because its entire premise was false. Some of the facts brought up by the appraisal industry in opposition that were ignored were: There were more appraisers in the state than there were a decade ago There are plenty of appraisers in the cities Rural appraisers have always been hard to find because the economics make nominally feasible to cover those markets The economics of AMC-gouging of appraiser fees had forced...
Recently one of my Mastermind students asked about Intellectual Property. He told me that he’d had an associate leave his firm to go solo. Later, he was reading one of his former-associate’s reports and found the now-independent associate’s reports looked a lot like his in format, and even language. My student asked me if this was wrong. Well, I’m not a lawyer, but there are some sound issues to consider here. If you write something, if you are its author, it is your intellectual property. You can either trademark it (like a logo), or copyright it (like a novel). We...
Bill H.R.3619 has left the House and is now ready for consideration in the Senate. There are a number of key issues presented in this bill. Three of them jumped out at me: SEC. 3. TRAINEE APPRAISERS. (12) TRAINEE APPRAISER. — The term ‘trainee appraiser’ means an individual who meets the minimum criteria established by the Appraiser Qualification Board for a trainee appraiser license and is credentialed by a State appraiser certifying and licensing agency.” This definition is critical to help undo the logjam that appraisers face bringing more people into the appraisal profession. SEC. 5. REQUIREMENT TO DISCLOSE APPRAISAL FEES....
My colleagues in the appraisal industry and I have been confused/alarmed by the actions of the former GSEs Fannie & Freddie over the past several years in their efforts to raise mortgage volume. Banks continue to remain in the fetal position on risk post-financial crisis and low mortgage rates and inverted yield curves aren’t helping. As a result, the GSEs, who remain in receivership, are doing all they can to remove pain points for banks to lend more and as a result, exposing the mortgage process (and, of course, the taxpayer) to unnecessary risk. As an appraiser, I’m clearly biased...
