Tagged: adjustment

Metro-West Solicitation Blast & Appraiser's Response 48

Appraiser’s Response to Metro-West

Metro-West Appraisal, thank you for your bulk email solicitation… I will consider accepting work from you on the following basis: My minimum fee for non complex FNMA guideline compliant SFRs is $550 (net). There are no exceptions. Any upload fees or other forms of service charges  or ‘convenience’ fees will be added to that fee. I do not accept or authorize discounting of the fee for any reason. The premium or surcharge for property with a transaction amount or other characteristic that requires completion by a certified appraiser, is a minimum of $250. However the final bid will depend on...

Concession Adjustments Missing in Appraisal Reports 41

Concession Adjustments Missing

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...

Weighting Process & Gridding of Comparable Sales - AppraisersBlogs 2

Results of Comps Grid Placement Survey

Weighting Process & Gridding of Comparable Sales Couple of weeks ago, I sent out a survey to NW WA State appraisers asking how they organize the comps grid page(s) on completed reports. Of the appraisers emailed, approximately 10% responded. Thank you. I did a limited distribution to keep my compiling time to a minimum, but I wanted to share the results with appraisers across the country as an FYI. I also sent a similar query to review appraisers I know. I offered 6 possible ways to do the grid, but as often happens, several appraisers wrote back saying they did it differently...

Photographs in Reports & 2 Refers 12

Photographs in Appraisal Reports

Photographs, 2 refers & Nat’l RE Appraiser’s Day… I’ve been asked to formally review a recent report. When looking over the report pages, the subject photo pages contain a mix of horizontal and vertical photographs, about half ‘n half. And there are lots of subject photos. Bear in mind, most report photo pages are formatted for horizontal photographs. It appears to me the appraiser used a smart phone for photos, as there would be no normal tendency to hold a regular camera vertically except in rare occasions to emphasize height of some feature. But people do that with phones. The...

Is There a Fourth Approach to Real Estate Value? 17

Is There a Fourth Approach to Real Estate Value?

I want to talk to you about the fourth approach to value… …and specifically an occasion on which it truly saved my bacon. Now, I know a lot of you real estate appraisers out there probably started chuckling as soon as you read the words ‘fourth approach to value.’ If you did, I get it, believe me! I used to be the same way. Over time, however, I’ve grown to see how it can often be a vital part of the valuation process. Let’s have a quick recap for anyone who’s either forgotten the fourth approach, or never learned it...

Rules Check Software 6

Rules Check Software

If the ‘story’ can be told using 3 comps, why are 4 or more really necessary? Folks, As you are probably aware, all of our appraisal reports receive an initial examination electronically. There are a number of businesses which have written and provide to the industry various types of ‘rules check software.’ This actually began in the early 1980’s by the appraisal computer software pioneers who wrote programs to ‘check’ reports for inconsistencies. I just learned about one such ‘rules check’ company, and the results they’ve seen using their software – below. They even admit to users that the users can ‘mine’ reports...

Individual Adjustments to the Detriment of the Bigger Picture 10

Seeing the Forest Through the Trees

Focusing on individual adjustments to the detriment of the bigger picture… Growing up, my parents used to refer to my inability to see the forest through the trees. This simply meant not being able to see the bigger picture because focus was so narrow that I only saw what was right in front of my eyes. Fortunately, I am older now, and (usually) better at seeing the bigger picture. I suspect this is a common phenomenon in all walks of life, and particularly in our work. This can happen in many aspects of the appraisal puzzle. One of the most...

Modernizing Appraisals: It seems we're stuck in 1989. 46

Modernizing Appraisals & Being Stuck in 1989

Modernizing Appraisals: It seems we’re stuck in 1989… On November 16, 2016, the Housing and Insurance Subcommitte held a hearing on “Modernizing Appraisals: A Regulatory Review and the Future of the Industry.” Subcommittee discussed modernizing appraisals to benefit American consumers. The hearing focused on necessary changes to the appraisal industry. Subcommittee Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) explained: “Appraisals are one of the cornerstones of the home-buying process. Issues that impact appraisers also impact nearly every American buying or selling a home, in rural and urban areas; in high- and low-income neighborhoods. Yet when it comes to the regulatory regime surrounding appraisals,...

Line Item Adjustments for Every Little Difference? 8

Bugged About Adjustments

Illogical line item adjustments… Appraisers, I’ve recently ‘come in contact with’, in a semi-official capacity, a recently completed appraisal report. In looking at the adjustment grid pages for 5 comps, items jumped out at me. These do not appear logical. All comps, except one, have sale or list prices at even thousand dollar figures = $XXX,000. The one is $XXX,950. These are pretty typical in our market. Very seldom do we see these in odd numbers, unless the listing agent is trying to be cute, and buyers accept the oddity. For line item adjustments in the report, the appraiser has...

UAD Rating Absolute vs Relative 39

UAD Rating Absolute vs. Relative

Where did those rating words come from? Why is it so many appraisers have trouble with UAD and the CU (Collateral Underwriter), and how to apply the Quality and Condition rating between the Subject and Comps? Not long after the UAD was implemented/mandated by FNMA (in 2011), and then the CU evaluation system came along, FNMA began discovering that many appraisers were improperly Rating the comps Quality and Condition AGAINST the Subject in the grid. And they began telling appraisers what they were finding. FNMA also discovered, and revealed, that many appraisers were using the same Comps over and over...

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