Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
The appraisal profession has never experienced an economic and valuation education forum like AppraiserFest 2018. This is the only national appraisal conference that is “appraiser centric” with a true advocacy for the profession. There are no hidden agendas, only appraisers sharing their knowledge, experience, skills and wisdom with other appraiser colleagues and peers from all backgrounds of membership, designations and levels of certification. Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, Inc. and highly respected appraiser from New York recently stated in his Housing Notes Newsletter, “This isn’t an event, it’s a happening!” In just one phrase, Mr. Miller captured the integrity...
…it will be the appraisal management companies that are going to be held to the fire, not the appraiser… In the spring of 2002 my wife and I bought our third house; an older cape cod in a great school system where our son would start kindergarten in the fall and his sister the year after. This house literally was 1970 inside. It had deep red shag carpet in the family room and sculptured avocado green carpet upstairs. Not to worry, it blended well with the sunshine yellow stove, bright orange counter top and turquoise and pink bathrooms. After 3...
Kudos to Congressman Member Jeb Hensarling! House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) is one of the few federal watchdogs that ‘gets it’ on Fannie Mae’s & all GSE’s operations. All appraisers that have watched Fannie Mae’s changes in policies over the past 3+ years knew it was only a matter of time before they would need another taxpayer bailout. What we didn’t know was that it would be this soon. Most of us assumed it would be after the next crash that their reckless policies trigger. Reading the recent press release from the House Financial Services Committee, my...
Many of you have filed formal complaints against AMC abuses with State appraisal boards… The place was a small subdivision developed with coastal style homes on the Ocean side of route 12 in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The bank was Bank of America. The AMC was LandSafe and the time was just before Corelogic purchase of Landsafe for $122 million. I was asked by this AMC to appraise a home for a purchase transaction. My comparable sales consisted of one recent sale of the next door neighbor, one on the same street, and two closed sales in the...
Hopefully you have been busy and have not noticed VaCAP has been quiet over the past few weeks. Not by choice, but necessity. You see, there has been so much happening, we have been overwhelmed and our heads are spinning out of control. VaCAP needs more members to volunteer to help us help you. Let us know how you can help. Let’s start with the easy stuff: The Virginia Real Estate Appraiser Board Quarterly Meeting will take place on February 21, 2018. The meeting will begin at 10:00 AM and there will be a public comment period for anyone who wishes to address...
Appraisal? Obviously its only worth ten bucks – off to India with it… Most appraisers (and consumers) know the difference between ‘right and wrong’. We don’t need the tortuous, twisted ambiguities of ASB straddling the fence, on all issues to know what is and is not okay. So far ALL they do is hypothesize that bad products can theoretically be used, IF they conform to all the USPAP rules that we all already know they fall short of. As in every single exception being sought for regulatory exceptions in the financial sector, only impractical, not very probable, best case scenarios...
Appraisers, If you work in Rural Areas [that definition is referenced in (b)(1) below], your appraisal livelihood is threatened by this pending bill in Congress. This bill, if signed into law, will allow lenders to bypass appraisals for any property with a ‘transaction value’ of $400,000 or less (this is moving the de minimus goal post) if the lender was unable to find an available appraiser to complete an appraisal “within a reasonable amount of time”… that time frame apparently as determined by a regulator agency with jurisdiction over the lender. The bill shows ‘exceptions’ to this as per other laws. Appraisers...
In the Appraisal World, The Expertise Only Gets Ten Percent of Fee An Indiana state certified appraiser based in Indiana who is also certified in other states including Georgia did an evaluation of a number of properties in Georgia. The “appraisal fee” was $250 but the AMC (Clear Capital) got $225, and this appraiser got $25 for each evaluation. I’ve blocked out the specifics of one of the orders except for the fee – in this disclosure form required in Georgia. In other words, the administrative fees for Quality Assurance, Broker/CMA fee, Home Data Index Fee (whatever that is) and...
30 days after implementation of the last changes, ASB/TAF is already admitting they think the current USPAP is inadequate and requires substantial change. They’re ALREADY Doing It Again! On January 30, 2018 the Appraisal Standards Board announced the release of their Discussion Draft for the 2020-2021 USPAP based in part on a survey from 2017 & prior draft comments. I’m confused. Didn’t we just have the 2018-2019 become effective 30 days ago? Should all those that have not yet purchased 2018-2019 just save their money and wait for the significantly revised 2020-2021 revisions? Rely on word of mouth and online...
Appraisers, effective with the 2018-19 USPAP, definitions for Extraordinary Assumption and Hypothetical Condition have changed. Below is a one page PDF sheet you can print & post at your office, and you may distribute this to others if you like. According to the Appraisal Standards Board, the Extraordinary Assumption change was done to clarify the term and its applicability. It seems the same rationale was used for the Hypothetical Condition definition change, although that was not mentioned in their Summary of Actions document issued on Feb. 23, 2017. Underlined words are the changes made. I also include the prior definitions below...
