Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
It was recently brought to my attention, by a reputable appraiser I might add, that the use of third-party inspectors may be a violation of USPAP. Or more specifically, that an appraiser relying on a third-party inspector for information (without knowing their name), may be a violation of USPAP. For example, there are several (and growing) companies who are providing clients with what are being postulated as “hybrid appraisals” or “hybrid reports.” The definition, as far as I can discern, is that a third-party inspector ‘inspects’ the property (usually an exterior from the street – which is why there are...
State Organizations & Appraisers Helping Appraisers You may have heard the expression “if you do not have a seat at the table, you are on the menu.” VaCAP can honestly state, appraisers are not on the menu. Over the past several weeks, members of the Network (NSAO), which has now grown to 28 state organizations, have been recapping the events that transpired at the meetings in Washington D.C. last month. These meetings consisted of the FHFA meeting, the NSAO meeting, the ASC meeting, and the AARO conference. Most state organizations participated and many individual appraisers attended. The support for the appraisal...
WHO does the SUBJECT INSPECTION? Appraisers, Some appraisers have questioned the name ‘Hybrid Appraisal’ because the requesting client WON’T USE THAT NAME for the product. When they call or email you, they’ll say something like “We have a really fast appraisal for you to do that you can do on your desktop without leaving your office.”, or “Can you do an exterior appraisal for us?” or they might identify it by the ‘name’ that client uses for the product. The FIRST question you need to ask is simple: WHO does the SUBJECT INSPECTION? If they say ‘someone else does that’…...
Even the Pentagon gets hacked! Do Consumers really KNOW how their loan application data is being handled? Having worked for IRS, I know it is against the law for any government employee to divulge specific (identifiable) taxpayer information without exceptional effort to get advance approval. There is no legal way for that personally identifiable taxpayer information to get into the public domain without the taxpayers specific written permission for it. Even inside IRS, we were required to protect the identification of the taxpayer in any case related situational discussions where we sought each others advice. We could talk about the...
The National Association of Realtors is encouraging all members and citizens to contact their representatives concerning tax reform. Congress is considering many tax reforms including the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction. See their website for further details on how the middle class can be impacted. Excerpt from NAR Tax Reform Call for Action: I urge you to oppose any tax reform plan that would weaken the tax incentives for owning a home, such as the mortgage interest deduction. Additionally, please do not let a tax reform plan increase taxes on middle-class homeowners through the elimination of the state and...
These so-called accurate and ‘reliable’ data sources are factually wrong… I was reading the Scope of Work contained in a sample Hybrid Appraisal, one of now dozens being promoted by multiple AMC’s, lenders, software developers, etc., which seem to be sweeping the secondary lending arena these days. It says… Identified and verified subject characteristics from a reliable data source such as MLS, County/City records, GIS, and online data sources. – Researched comparable sales and listings from reliable data source such as MLS, County/City records, etc.” “Reliable” is the ugly lie and supposed truth promoted by very naive or unaware people...
“…after forty years of studying markets, I got it wrong…” As time goes on, the one thing that appears to be both a societal and financial markets constant, is our inability to learn from our past mistakes. Late, a couple of nights ago (10/23/17), while channel surfing, I happened on an economics program intended to explain the financial crisis of 2008. My apologies for referring to a programming without its name or network. Instead, I had to consider the person who was the primary focal point of the program: Hyman Minsky (see link to The Economist here). Before reading the...
Are you curious about the salary range for appraisers in the United States? Click this link for info on salary ranges for Real Estate Appraisers. Rising fees across the country has fueled the growth in appraiser income. That’s a good thing! Why should we be the only ‘workers’ to have their income potential held down by lenders who don’t want to pass on true costs of doing complicated appraisals to their bank clients – the actual mortgage loan consumer – while EVERYTHING else has increased? Thankfully over the past two years that has changed, as most appraisers across the US...
Palm Beach AMC, thank you for your blind/bulk solicitation. Just out of curiosity, why do you think I would share that kind of personal & confidential professional information with a firm I never heard of? I don’t even know what kind of fee schedule you are used to paying? You offer no references of any kind, yet you expect I will extend credit to you for thirty days? Without exception, THAT means that you will use MY fee to pay YOUR overhead for thirty days before you even consider sending MY fee to me. Firms that do not segregate appraiser...
Big data comps sharing assisting appraisers… I admit to having a dog in the fight. Maybe even a pony, camel, or even a pure bred Clydesdale horse… On 10/09/2017, the owner of alamode software informed customers of a significant new change in how ‘comps’ can be added to a current report – which will be implemented sometime early next year. Read his message here. This is significant because the ability of ‘Big Data’ is being put to work ASSISTING appraisers, rather than being withheld from us as is done with the GSE’s highly touted Collateral Underwriter – even though ‘we’...
