Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
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...
Criminal Charges Brought Against AMC Owner VaCAP has been informed that AMC owner Brian Coester, of Coester Valuation Management Services (VMS), has new criminal charges filed against him. We have confirmed these charges through the court system public access system: Maryland Judiciary Case Search Criteria Below is a list of 19 court cases found under the name Brian Coester: Is Another Financial Scare on the Horizon? George Will, Washington Post Writers Group, has an interesting column in entitled “America is overdue for another Lehman-Like Episode”. In this article he stated that the stock market has enjoyed its longest-ever bull run. The...
Presumably, "public trust" is the foundational test. Have our institutions, rules, regulations, standards, and social expectations failed us? The purpose of the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) is to promote and maintain a high level of public trust in appraisal practice by establishing requirements for appraisers. Preamble 2018-2019 Our mission is to foster the public trust of our members and the appraisal profession through compliance with the highest levels of ethical and professional standards. The American Society of Appraisers Its mission is to advance professionalism and ethics, global standards, methodologies, and practices through the professional development of property economics worldwide. The Appraisal Institute Some ten years ago, financial...
His legacy of his Landsafe AMC still lives today within CoreLogic… During the housing bubble, I remember thinking about how BofA had avoided the systemic insanity of lending that overtook most mortgage lenders including banks like Washington Mutual… and then they bought Countrywide and all hell broke loose. From the appraisal perspective, I observed them incorporate the Countrywide’s Landsafe Appraisal Management Company into the mix and all of a sudden, they took half of the appraisal fee and applied military-like rules such as 48-hour turn times and 19-year-olds chewing gum who followed long checklists without regard for local market knowledge....
Appraisers, I’ve written in the past about what I believe are strange ways to report adjustments in appraisals, and suggested ‘rounding’ is a perfectly acceptable way to report them. This is largely due to buyers and listing agents thinking and listing in $100 increments – not down to exact dollar amounts. During the past couple of weeks, I ‘came in contact with’ two separate appraisals done by different appraisers on totally different properties, in different market areas. What struck me was the incredibly precise adjustments made for only certain items in these reports, while the rest of adjustments were ‘rounded’ to...
