Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues

States Back LREAB Against FTC - FNMA Ends 1004MC - Stress Test Failed? 5

States Back LREAB Against FTC

States Support Louisiana Real Estate Appraiser Board against the FTC States (and appraisers) are very interested in the outcome of the LREAB vs FTC to protect their own sovereign actions. On July 11, 2018, the states of Mississippi, Idaho, Iowa, Rhode Island, and Utah filed an amicus brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit supporting the Louisiana Real Estate Appraiser Board. See the entire brief here or below. The outcome of this will impact each and every one of us. As we reported a few days ago, one lender, BB&T, has opted to step up...

How Many Appraisers Are in North Dakota? - Appraisal Shortage Saga Lingers 46

How Many Appraisers Are in North Dakota?

The answer is 153, who are individually licensed in North Dakota. I didn’t segregate the three different license types. This figure came from a download of the ASC appraisal registry of ND licensed appraisers, and not counting duplicate name appraisers with multiple licenses in other states. Many of these appraisers are ‘dual licensed’ in more than one state, in most cases immediately adjacent, but sometimes in states far distant from ND. What’s the population of North Dakota? According to Wikipedia: The United States Census Bureau estimates North Dakota’s population was 755,393 on July 1, 2017, a 12.3% increase since the 2010 United...

BB&T Adopts VA Appraisal Fee Schedule & Will Refund Appraisers Upload Fees 10

Appraisal Fee Increase & Upload Fees

VaCAP has learned from one of our members, BB&T will be following the Veterans Administration Fee Schedule moving forward. They will also being reimbursing appraisers for all upload fees. This is exciting news. Please share with your contacts and clients. See the announcement below. To: BB&T Approved Mortgage Appraiser Continuing our commitment to compensate appraisers with fees which are customary and reasonable, BB&T utilizes the Veterans Administration’s published fee schedule as a foundation. We wish to inform you that we are adjusting our mortgage fee schedule to remain consistent with recent fee increases announced by the Veterans Administration to certain states in...

An Avalanche of Appraisal Waivers Continues 3

The Appraisal Waiver Avalanche

The State of North Dakota Along With Their Banking Lobby, Applies For a Waiver This just came in so I will expand on this post in the future, but here is what we know. The governor has submitted a request to the Appraisal Subcommittee for an appraisal waiver but the letter seems more orientated towards raising the de minimus which just occurred. By the way, isn’t it apparent that the banking lobby is a little to cozy with the Governor’s office to actually cosign this letter? The letter also makes references to the lack of rural appraisers as a long-term...

Limbo Anyone? How Low Will Clarocity Stock Go? 16

Limbo Anyone? How Low Will it Go?

No, I am not really going to talk about a Limbo game. I am referring to the stock of a company promoting hybrid appraisals across the country. Representatives of this company are at every industry meeting, promoting their products, often times invited to speak. You are probably sick of hearing about hybrid appraisals by now and honestly, so am I. So I will keep any verbiage about hybrids in the context of reference only and try not to bash them too much. If you are regular reader of Appraisersblogs, you probably have seen many articles about Clarocity Corporation. A quick...

Financial Ecosystem Changes & ASA's Response to the Treasury Report 10

Financial Ecosystem Changes

Treasury report calling for a more digitalized mortgage process, including the use of AVMs, hybrid appraisals & appraisal waivers… A few days ago, HousingWire reported the Trump Administration calling for sweeping changes to the financial ecosystem. In short, the article references a report by the Department of the Treasury calling for a more digitalized mortgage process, including the use of AVMs, hybrid appraisals and appraisal waivers. The HousingWire article has a link to the Treasury Report, which is 222 pages or you can click here to read the report. VaCAP has received a copy of the ASA’s response to the Treasury Report....

Push for Automated Appraisals... Even Paranoid You Can Have Enemies 16

Just Because You’re Paranoid Doesn’t Mean They Aren’t After You

It appears the government sees the future of appraising as one driven largely by Automated Valuation Models, Hybrids, and outright appraisal waivers…. The title for this article comes from a famous quote by Joseph Heller (the author of Catch-22 fame). I thought of his pithy quote when reading the recommendations by the Department of Treasury to the president. The title of the report: “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities Nonbank Financials, Fintech, and Innovation” seems innocuous enough. However, some decidedly non-innocuous observations / recommendations regarding the appraisal industry appear starting on page 103. The report starts off promising enough;...

AMROCK Valuations New Service Seems to Seek Circumvention of USPAP! 14

Can you say ‘L-A-W-S-U-I-T’ boys and girls?

Fellow appraisers I strongly discourage anyone from accepting AMROCK Valuations work generally due to their poor track record in dealing with appraisers across the country; and their apparent habit of making up their own appraisal rules as they go along without regard to C&R fees; Dodd Frank and most other common sense sound appraisal practices up to and including USPAP. Y’all remember USPAP don’t you? A series of uniform rules we’d all follow to promote, preserve and protect the American real estate appraisal profession and the American Public. That is until it became an inconvenient impediment to MISMO; FNMA and...

That Terminator is out There! - AI National Is Vigorously Fighting For Evaluations 4

That Terminator is out There!

One of my favorite lines from the original Terminator movie from the Kyle Reese character that can apply to the unknown driver of AI National’s obsession to force evaluations on residential appraisers because they can count on the designation handcuffs that keep many from speaking out and continue to damage the public trust and continue to damage the livelihoods of its own members in slow motion without bothering to reach out and explain what is behind it (gasping for air sound). Remember that it took 10-years of screaming by AI membership to get AI National to disclose their dealings with FNC with an...

Comparable property CHARACTERISTICS 2

Comparable property CHARACTERISTICS

What are the CHARACTERISTICS to consider? Appraisers, In over 17 years in this business, I’ve seen hundreds of properties. My service area encompasses urban through rural properties in an area 40 to 100+ miles distant from the largest metropolitan area in the state. Each appraisal assignment and subject property I do is different from one day to the next. Because of this diverse experience, and some of the essays I write, I am often contacted by other appraisers across the country to discuss report situations that are challenging, complex and questionable. Such was the case recently. A technical review appraiser...

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