Tagged: appraisal

College Degree Requirement is Flawed - AppraisersBlogs 51

College Degree Requirement is Flawed

Why the 4-year college degree requirement is flawed and how to make the requirement work? Many, many years ago, my local college offered appraisal classes. You could take a couple classes, go take the state test and start knocking on doors. New people didn’t need a mentor. And new people learned by trial and error. It probably wasn’t the best way to do things. But it did allow for new people to freely get into the profession without a bunch of hurdles to overcome. Times have changed. Today, new people have to have a 4-year college degree in anything first,...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

A Possible Solution to Customary and Reasonable Fees - C&R Fees Solutions 10

A Possible Solution to Customary & Reasonable Fees

Over the past five years, a major subject of talk in the appraiser world has been that of Customary and Reasonable Fees. Unfortunately, much of the dialogue has been mostly one-sided. We tend to do a lot of griping about the fact that many of us are not being paid what is “customary” or “reasonable”, but there are very few solutions offered up. When I was young and would sometimes (not often, of course) complain about this or that, my father would always say, “Don’t come to me with a complaint unless you have a possible solution.” It was sound advice then...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Customary & Reasonable Fees / Dodd-Frank Act / C&R Fees

AMC's “My Way or the Highway” Attitude 47

AMC’s “My Way or the Highway” Attitude

Apparent appraiser abuse by AMC’s… As Chairman of the American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) National Appraiser Peer Review Committee, I have had the opportunity to see and hear directly about many cases involving alleged, as well as apparent appraiser abuse by AMC’s. These cases ranged geographically from California, Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia, New York, Maryland, and District of Columbia. As a QC consultant to a smaller appraiser owned AMC, I have also seen low fee spreadsheets from a variety of lenders that had 90% listed at the SAME APPRAISER fees: $495.00 (which INCLUDED the AMC...

AGA / AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations

AQB Changing Course on Appraiser Qualifications? 60

AQB Changing Course on Appraiser Qualifications?

Is AQB Potentially Changing Course on Appraiser Qualifications? Appraisers & others, The Appraisal Qualifications Board (AQB) is one of the voluntary Boards under The Appraisal Foundation. Their role is to analyze, debate, review, and decide the minimum qualifications necessary for a person to become an appraiser. While all who currently or in the past have served on this Board, are individually good and experienced people, collectively by Board action they have nearly caused residential appraising to grind to a halt due to their highly restrictive policy decisions. Yes, this a strong statement, and ‘halting’ won’t happen until the majority of current...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / AQB / The Appraisal Foundation

Comment Subscriptions 8

Appraisal Fee Disclosure – Call To Action

Important – Call to Action This must be done by Tuesday July 7 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is requesting comments on the proposed amendment to the “Know Before You Owe” mortgage disclosure rule, which proposes to move the rule’s effective date to October 3, 2015. We feel it is very important that the appraisal fee be disclosed separately from any add on fees such as an AMC fee. Recently 23 state appraiser coalitions including the Louisiana Appraisers Coalition worked together and submitted a letter to the CFPB about making it a requirement to separate the fees of the...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / CFPB

You are Not Valuing Property - Value Real Estate - Imagecredit Flickr - Got Credit 2

You are Not Valuing Property

Thousands and thousands of decisions determine value. What do you do for a living? I am a real estate appraiser. What does that mean?  I value real estate. Actually, that is not quite true. Okay, technically it is, but what is the value of real estate really? Real estate is given a value only based on what a seller is willing to settle for and a buyer is willing to part with.  Of course, it is much more complicated than that (which is why appraisers are so needed), but that is the gist of it. For a moment, I want you to think about...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

Condo Density Primer 3

Condo Density Primer

Many appraisers still seem confused as to what the form means by density. In the project section of Fannie Mae form 1073 the first line addresses topography, size, density and view. Many appraisers still seem confused as to what the form means by density. Appraisers enter and AMCs approve phrases like: average or typical or even a calculation such as 50 units / 12,975 square feet. Appendix D regarding UAD reporting offers no guidance. What are they asking for and what does it mean? Fannie is looking to see if the existing density can be rebuilt following a catastrophic loss....

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

What is Gross Living Area and What Does it Include 29

What is Gross Living Area (GLA)?

What is Gross Living Area and What Does it Include? Appraisers, There are certain properties where aspects of Gross Living Area (GLA) might not be obvious. It’s more confusing when the selling real estate agents lump all “living space” together, because that’s what they are selling, or when the county assessor includes basements with upper level areas. These include homes with a detached ADU, additional rec room or sleeping space above a garage, additional living space with roof attached to the primary dwelling via covered breezeway, basement living spaces with separate entry, etc. Fannie Mae has a giant book called...

American Measurement Standard / American National Standards Institute / AMS / ANSI / Appraisal / Appraisal News

Freddie Mac Proprietary Messages in the UCDP Scheduled for June - Imagecredit Flickr - Patrick McFall 2

Freddie Mac Takes a Bite of the Apple

Freddie Mac Proprietary Messages in the UCDP Not wanting to be left home from the party, Freddie Mac has announced that on June 30, 2015 it will begin providing new feedback on appraisals submitted to it via the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP). Like Fannie Mae’s system, the messages will be delivered to those lenders seeking to sell residential loans to Freddie Mac. Most of the feedback will be in the form of warnings which essentially alert a lender there are some inconsistencies between the submitted appraisal report and data that Freddie Mac already possesses (like public records). For example,...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Quality Monitoring / Appraisers News / AQM / Collateral Underwriter

Truth-in-Lending Act - RESPA Ingetraged Disclosure - TRID Coming Soon Imagecredit Flickr - Dennis Skley 1

TRID Coming Soon Your Way

Appraisers and others, TRID is coming to mortgage lending on Aug. 1, 2015. In case you have not been paying attention to new aspects surrounding your typical measuring buildings and writing reports on a daily basis, TRID is set to become a major change in the mortgage lending process. TRID is the acronym for the ‘Truth-in-Lending Act/RESPA Integrated Disclosure’ process that applies to every mortgage loan as of 8/01/15.  It was part of the Dodd-Frank Law, with power given to the CFPB agency to devise the rules, forms and process. The intent is to consolidate and simplify processes that have...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / CFPB

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