Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
So, do you have two brains? One appraiser brain says you must be “independent, impartial, and objective.” (USPAP) It wants to be good. It wants integrity and to sleep peacefully at night. But there’s another brain. It’s primal and wants to survive. It has other responsibilities: meet the bills, feed the family, pay the mortgage, and pay government taxes/fees. And recorded in this brain is that part of the standards which say: Do what your clients expect; do what everyone else does. As paraphrased, the sole guides to an acceptable scope of work. The two brains may not talk to each other. Each...
…do away with specifically ‘naming’ an appraisal report as to the “type” it is… Folks, the Second Exposure Draft of proposed changes to the next USPAP was released by the Appraisal Standards Board on August 23. See embedded PDF below. The ASB is encouraging all users to review this document, and provide commentary back to them on/before October 10, 2018. One item of note is there is a proposal in the Draft to do away with specifically ‘naming’ an appraisal report as to the “type” it is. If it’s not an ‘appraisal’, what is it?? Currently we have “Appraisal Report”...
We won’t take appraiser trainees, but we’ll take real estate trainees… That’s the million dollar question. Big banking is counting on the majority of appraisers to fall in line with whatever hybrid product they decide is best. It makes for an interesting road ahead because appraisers actually have the power to make these products a success or a failure. A hybrid appraisal is still an appraisal and must have a signature from a licensed appraiser. If banks can keep whittling away at the appraiser’s scope and can get the total appraisal fee low enough, they will achieve their goal and...
Property inspectors suing ServiceLink to obtain minimum wage… Peter Christensen wrote another article on LinkedIn about wages being paid by lenders and AMCs. This one should get your attention as it is from Independent Contractors suing an AMC. This will set a precedent and start a chain reaction. In a nut shell, property inspectors are suing ServiceLink for work performed to obtain minimum wage. Yes, you read that correctly, minimum wage. According to the article, property inspectors receive between $3 and $5 for each assignment. The article does not specify the specific service the property inspectors perform, but think bifurcated or...
Alamode recently launched Smart Exchange to its users. The idea is appraisers can see what others have stated as property characteristics and transfer that information directly into your report. The system is based on mutual sharing, so if you participate, you will share all your comparable data with everyone else that is using Smart Exchange and you can see their data. The last update from alamode installed the programming and changed the way the side by side screen looks. Now I must make a disclaimer here, I am in the over 50 category and my kids are all grown. It...
An appraiser shared this email from a mortgage underwriter: I saw you called a few days ago and I apologize as I have been very busy. If you can just email back notes as to why your not changing value or you can input notes into the appraisal. This can give the borrower a better understanding why the appraisal is low. If your updating value; that is find too.” My response to the appraiser: “Good grief. The Appraisal already explains why the value is the value in the report to your client – the bank. The lender is the one...
…which counties in the US qualify for this kind of FNMA rural high-needs appraisal waiver… Appraisers, you may not be affected by this new FNMA waiver process. Then again, if you service certain ‘poverty’ counties in the US, you may. A surprise to me… Kings County, New York [Brooklyn], is one such county. It probably would be in your best interest to examine this blog, and then click on the map link within the article. The map will show which counties in the US qualify for this kind of FNMA rural high-needs appraisal waiver. Once the map opens, you can...
Why does a hybrid appraisal work better? What are the benefits? Who benefits? Who pays? A hybrid appraisal, as it has been proposed, separates the field work from the desk work. The assumption is that an appraiser is good at filling out the forms, while another “cheaper faster” person can do the property inspection. Also, we presume that the client would be the one to select the field inspector. For this post, we also assume that the property inspector is a real estate agent. This is the third post considering “hybrid appraisal”. I had intended it to be no more...
…has nothing to do with size… This article from realtor.com titled ‘Forget Price Per Square Foot: The More Accurate Ways to Determine Your Home’s Value’ explains why price per square foot is not a good gauge of value. Excerpt: A home’s price per square foot is a common way to quantify its value… Many home shoppers even use it as a determinant for whether or not they’ll even consider touring a home. But that doesn’t mean it’s the most accurate, end-all and be-all way to gauge a home’s value and compare it with other houses. Why? Because all homes are...
Appraiser Overtime Lawsuits Continue to Hit Banks and AMCs – and Now Commercial Appraisers Against a National Commercial Appraisal Firm In May, I wrote a short piece (posted here) about the legal threat posed to AMCs, appraisal firms and other employers of appraisers in relation to classification of appraisers as exempt from overtime. I included a warning that the threat was spreading to commercial firms. It’s time for an update. In August, another bank – U.S. Bank – was sued for unpaid overtime by a potential class of appraisers. Also named as a defendant to the class action is U.S....
