Appraisal News and Appraisal Tips For Real Estate Appraisers - Your source for appraisal industry news, appraisers' opinions, and discussions of appraisal issues
Is the Housing Bubble About to Burst? Subpoenas Have Been Issued; A Stay Has Been Granted; The Case is Moving Forward The FTC vs LREAB case has had numerous articles floating around. Some information that is being stated is inaccurate, some embellished, some truthful. The official case log contains everything from the initial complaint to the Judge’s rulings. Take a look at some of the subpoenas issued and who is filing motions to quash them…. What do these AMC’s have to hide? Click here for the official case log. Wow, Just Wow! “S.1649 – A bill to help States combat abuse...
Salvaging Relationships with Appraisers… Wells Fargo, one of the oldest banks in the country, is working hard to salvage relationships, not with just customers and regulators, but appraisers as well. Wells Fargo recently stopped using Appraisal Management Companies and is aggressively trying to build an appraisal panel of their own. Appraisers are excited that one of the largest banks in the country is no longer using AMC’s. We give Wells Fargo high “Kudos” for making a change in the right direction. However, there is a bit of a dilemma when making an informed decision whether to have a relationship with Wells...
Pressure that used to be overt has now become covert… I hold no particular pedigree or credential to speak for everyone in the real estate appraisal profession. All I can do is draw from nearly 26 years of being a part of it. In that time, I have heard almost every opinion on every issue that promises to be the next big challenge for our industry. It’s true that like everything, change is inevitable. We adapt to new technologies and practices as well as learn new skill sets. From FIRREA to Dodd-Frank, appraisers have continued to evolve when swift moving...
Appraiserville – A webinar and charts to end any doubt – there is no appraisal shortage. Several months ago, Housingwire hosted a controversial webinar that seemed to represent all that was wrong with the perception of appraisers and the patently false “appraiser shortage” narrative that was being pushed out by REVAA and AMCs across all mortgage related publications. Even the Appraisal Institute – long known for the reputation of being dismissive of its residential membership – talks about the shortage after forming their fact finding committee to address how to better represent residential appraisers in the organizations. Read more »
Phil Crawford welcomes Ron Stickelman from CU Appraisal Services. Ron has been working with credit unions to show the benefits of appraisers taking on trainees! Can we get faster turn times and better quality using trainees? We know many appraisers that would like to start to build firms again, but are major AMCs fighting against this? Do they want to be the firms of tomorrow? It’s always fun when “Uncle Ron” stops by! Listen to E165 Are Credit Unions seeing the benefits of trainees?!? Podcast
Your Appraisal Report Attached to a MLS Listing…. Private prelisting appraisals are a good revenue stream for many appraisers. Do your clients understand the intended use and intended users? Do you, the appraiser, understand the intended use and the intended users? We often get complacent and assume everyone understands, and then the unthinkable happens; you find your appraisal report attached to a MLS listing or worse, attached as a photo on Zillow. Yes, this actually is happening! On recent MLS listings, the following statements were found: “Offers accepted until… Owner reserves the right to accept or reject any/all offers –...
Is the cost-benefit of conservative appraisers worth it? Appraisers, Mr. Adam Ozimek, who is described as a ‘senior economist’ at Moody’s Analytics (from a search I did) penned this gawd-awful piece: Appraisers May Be Holding Back the Housing Market, And That Might Be Okay. This piece appeared in Forbes.com on July 5 – the focus of which is to nearly blame ‘conservative’ appraisers for “holding back the market,” … but maybe it’s OK, he says. Where do they find these people, anyway? I love it when so-called authority figures start off with speculations, not backed with any facts, and fill the...
Fee Survey Results & Fee Increase…. Appraisers have certainly been hearing a lot of negativity lately and we finally have some good news to share. The Veterans Administration has completed its fee survey. This is good news as the VA now considers $525 as the normal fee for non-complex properties in Virginia. This equates to a 16.5% increase from the previous fee of $450. To see the new fee schedule for Virginia, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland and West Virginia, please click here or see table below. The fees become effective 09/01/2017. Greetings, The purpose of this communication is to...
What is the significant part of significant contribution? Most lenders would rather not do the work of cultivating and curating a panel of appraisers. This is largely why AMCs exist. AMCs, in turn, quietly off-load some of their activities to other subcontracted entities. Some AMCs contract out state licensing and registration compliance responsibilities to outside concerns. A few use portals to send out engagements to their panel of appraisers. Others farm out payroll and invoicing. Still others outsource their QC work. This begs the question: What exactly do some AMC’s provide…directly? Some appraisers, too, don’t seem to be interested in...
Concession Adjustments are expected to be made… Appraisers, As noted previously, I ‘observe’ various reports from various sources. A new one arrived last week. In looking over the grid, I noticed the concession adjustments are missing in the grid, as shown below. Commentary continues below the image. The appraiser correctly shows the concession amount in the left portion of the comp grid (Comp 1 & 2 – Green Arrows), but does not put a corresponding adjustment for the concession in the actual grid column (Red arrows). This is NOT the first time I have seen this in reports. Apparently this...
