Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
What can we do to establish a national measurement standard for appraisers? Every week I talk to appraisers in different parts of the country and the conversations are almost always the same. Square footage errors are a problem everywhere, some places worse than others. Every appraiser seems to understand the problem and many of them complain about the real estate agents, home-owners, and even underwriters who challenge them about their square footage totals. They rely on the “Official Record” they believe is listed by the local tax department. Who teaches them this stuff? How is it possible the general public...
Solidifi Agreement provides little or no protection for the appraiser… Many appraisers have seen the Solidifi agreement that appraisers must agree to if they want to receive appraisal assignment from them. This 18-19 page agreement written by a lawyer which was paid by Solidifi provides lots of protection and power for Solidifi and little or no protection for the appraiser. Many of you might be on the fence, should I agree to this or should I not and know that I will lose some business. If Solidifi is your major provider of appraisal assignment they have just put you between...
…appraiser who claims to NOT SIGN any kind of appraiser employment agreement with an Indemnity Clause in it… This essay is not positioned as a promotion of AMC’s, which after writing to the end I realized some may believe. I don’t like the AMC business model. But for the time being, we are stuck with AMC’s if one desires to work in the mortgage lending arena. However, some lenders are beginning to realize the AMC business model is proving unworkable and unwieldy, and are moving back to direct assignment placement, or use one of the available ‘portals’ to distribute and accept assignments...
TALCB noted that roughly 70% of all complaints against appraisers are unfounded… The American Guild of Appraiser recently wrote to Texas Sunset Commission expressing member concerns and suggested solutions. We urge readers to copy, paste, edit and send their own comments – even out of state appraisers. Click here to send your comments. Posted AGA comments and concerns Appraiser complaints are allowed to be filed against appraiser by third parties that are not the clients. The appraiser has no recourse to these for recouping costs of defense. Third party complaints by non clients (agents; brokers, buyers, sellers) serve only to...
Your Executive Committee met last week to discuss future events and issues that impact us all in our day to day lives as professional Appraisers. Everyone of us is an unpaid volunteer working for you on issues that you may not even be aware of. Bernie Bugg and I met with the president and director of WRVA radio to see how we get our story out there. They were surprised and shocked to hear what is going on in the mortgage Appraisal world. They see the looming potential dangers. We are in negotiations with them now. It looks very promising! VaCAP memberships/website address (appraiser...
Each and every day we make decisions. Sometimes we base our decisions on sound, unbiased information, other times we may base our decisions on no information what so ever and are solely based on our opinions and perception. Right or wrong, we make a decision. Appraisers utilize sound unbiased information as well as our opinions and perceptions to complete appraisals. Markets are always changing and often historical data only represents just that, historical information. Historical data does not consider what is happening currently or what has been proposed for the future; both of which play an important role in how the...
Warning: lots of “spirited” inside jokes abound. No offense to the cows I’ve met in my lifetime (none are on a first name basis with me). When an institution has “spirit” it is all about the lowest bid and fastest turn time…period. Clerical staff usually makes the choice when institutions (with spirit) treat their appraisers whose spirit has been crushed, like this. In looking at this particular request, here’s what I find — we uploaded the request around 11:30 yesterday. The “huddle” on Appraisal Shield pushes each request out to an appraiser about once an hour — I did a...
It looks like USPAP and IVS are finally going to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. Didn’t Coca Cola already do that? It’s been awhile since I’ve harped about the International Valuation Standards (IVS) and the International Valuation Standards Council, or their inappropriate influence on USPAP. Perdition Road paving compliments of The Appraisal Foundation under sub contract to MISMO. Unnecessary Bridging from USPAP to IVS provided by TAF. For those unfamiliar with what (IVS) or who (IVSC) they are, the following link may help. Scroll down to the corporate sponsors section. THIS is who the ‘international sponsors’ are....
Read any sales training publication and you will learn about positivity and how it helps you succeed. For the most part, this is true. But what happens when reality sets in? Positivity: Many appraisers have praised the decision by Fannie Mae to eliminate the 1004MC. No question, it is a flawed form, but every software vendor allows us to complete the form with the push of a button. This can be done in most MLS systems as well. The form shows the number of sales in the past 90 days and the number of current active listings. With enough data,...
12 Year Trend: Active Appraiser Credentials… We often hear about the ‘shortage’ of appraisers in the US. This is fake news promulgated by a number of AMC’s who cannot find enough appraisers to do their assignments – largely because the AMC won’t pay the appraiser an appropriate fee for service, or other issues. John Brenan, Director of Appraisal Issues for The Appraisal Foundation, gave a presentation at the Washington State association of appraisers conference on Aug. 16. He showed this slide during his presentation: Note that these are CREDENTIALS… the licenses granted by the individual states, which are then reported to...
