Tagged: automated valuation model

HouseCanary, Another High Powered AVM Affecting Appraisers

September 18, 2017

CU Not the Only AVM Affecting Appraisers

Assignments Funneled Back Through HouseCanary & Your Data Appraisers, CU from the GSE’s was thrust on appraisers in 2011. Since then, the giant sink hole designed by the ‘enterprises’ has gobbled up millions of home data elements. And in some cases, this data has been used AGAINST appraisers – who have no direct access to it, even though ‘we’ are the ones supplying the data. But they are not the only entity doing this. A company named ‘HouseCanary’ has also been amassing more millions of data points about US properties. During 2017, HouseCanary has had $64 MILLION dollars of investor funding...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Software / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM

May 24, 2017

Zillow Gone Wild

Some very interesting news is surrounding Zillow… A lawsuit over Zestimates has now gone to a class action status. This will have rippling effects on each and every state and expand the liability to not only licensing, but privacy and consumer fraud. Read about this change here. Excerpt from the article titled “Class-action suit aims to halt Zestimates in Illinois”: “The Zestimates that Zillow posts are misleading and pose as accurate appraisals in violation of Illinois’ legal description of an appraisal, according to the complaint filed by three members of the Patel family and Schaumburg-based CastleBldrs.com. They claim homebuyers read...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / Trending

February 24, 2017

Baby or Bath Water? And Is it Time to Take Back USPAP?

About half of AICPA members don’t believe in USPAP… When I first heard that “they” were trying to do away with the Appraisal Practices Board (APB) of the Appraisal Foundation (TAF), I tried to keep an open mind. I also wondered who “they” are. Did the Appraisal Institute (AI) finally get a sympathetic ear in Congress? Was it preemptive action by the Board of Trustees in anticipation of budget cuts by the new administration? By the way, what does the APB do? I certainly had it wrong. I thought they helped develop the Advisory Opinions (AOs)! To be candid the...

AGA / AI / American Society of Appraisers / APB / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute

January 9, 2017

Appraisal Alternatives

Computers eliminating “boots on the ground” residential appraisers. An historian once quipped, “I cannot predict the future, but give me six months and I’ll tell you why it was inevitable.” Residential appraisers who work in the mortgage arena began to experience the sea change when UAD arrived amongst much fanfare in September of 2011. Years of portals, hard-stops, and overrides have settled into an uneasy routine. We’ve already seen changes to closing docs as a result of TRID (TILA RESPA Integrated Disclosures). That adventure began in November 2013. Washington DC, never content to maintain any level of consistency has already...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / AQB / Automated Valuation Models

December 19, 2016

Appraiser Versus Machine?

Loan officer, the bank, homeowner… want a higher value… Automated Valuation Models: Are they any good? Appraiser vs Machine? AVMs were run on a few properties that were recently appraised. The results are well, ….. they are what they are. The questions are: Are they good? Are they good enough? Will the consumer accept them? Will the banks and lenders accept them? Below are the samples. We have to be careful as we are appraisers and don’t want to be sitting in front of the VREAB explaining why we shared assignment results in violation of the confidentiality requirements of the...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM

November 14, 2016

Freddie Mac Criminal Aspects of Its Appraisal Free Mortgages

Freddie Mac is opening itself up to over 150,000± potential individual lawsuits… This is a response from Mike Ford to Kenneth Harney’s article, “Freddie Mac planning appraisal-free mortgages”. I represent the American Guild of Appraisers, #44OPEIU, AFL-CIO, and the real estate appraisal-related consumer and taxpayer interests of our more than fifteen million± AFL-CIO members, retirees and their families. I’m prompted to write this open letter regarding your recent well written & researched article, titled “Freddie Mac planning appraisal free mortgages”. Regrettably, it was too brief to cover several additional critical aspects of the issue, but I assume the Chicago Tribune’s...

ACI / AGA / AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News

Automated Revolution Valuation Imposters

November 8, 2016

Automated Revolution, the Valuation Imposters

Along comes the automated valuation revolution… The appraisers we need, to keep consumers protected, are the very ones being driven out of the business. They are being forced out by big banks and AMCs (who much too often provide zero benefits to consumers). Everyone seems to have forgotten that these services (provided by AMCs) used to be part of the bank’s responsibility for every loan. It was just the cost of doing business. Then came the AMCs and banks’ profits had to go up. After all, they lost a whole department. Now they pass the expenses along, mostly on the...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Online Estimates

Property Inspection Waiver: Fannie Mae Offering to Waive Appraisals

October 26, 2016

Fannie Mae Waiving Appraisals

Property Inspection Waiver, getting back to the old days of fogging a mirror… Appraisers, Effective 12/10/16, FNMA will have a new program in place which will allow LENDERS to waive appraisals on certain refi’s, if it is offered through the automated Desktop Underwriter (DU) loan documentation process. See the attached PDF. Key points from the PDF (emphasis mine): Property inspection waiver (PIW) is an offer to waive the appraisal for certain refinance transactions. Property Inspection Waiver offers are issued through Desktop Underwriter® (DU®) using Fannie Mae’s database of more than 20 million appraisal reports in combination with proprietary analytics from...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / Collateral Underwriter

October 24, 2016

The RPR® Epidemic – Online Valuations vs Trained Appraisers

Consumer protection goes right out the door as consumers learn to trust these online valuations over a local, highly trained appraiser. Realtor Property Resource® is a private automated system just for Realtor® members. They are making great strides in promoting this service, and more and more agents are using this system to create their CMAs to present to owners. I recently reviewed a report provided by the listing agent which included sixty-nine pages of every imaginable piece of information. To an owner, this must look very impressive. However, to anyone who understands what a “Comparable” sale is, this report was...

American National Standards Institute / ANSI / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models

October 20, 2016

Hybrid Appraisals – Why They Are Impacting Appraisal Employment

How hybrid appraisals may impact your future Appraisers, A day or so ago, I found out about the rebranding of ZAIO into Clarocity, and their purchase of Valued Veterans AMC. The ‘new’ CEO of the Canadian/USA company, formerly ZAIO, now named Clarocity, was recently interviewed. Take the time to actually read this interview. If you have forgotten, ZAIO came into the US in about early 2008 or so with the intent to develop property data bases in most urban areas – with photos, that could be re-used by various entities. They sold ‘zones’ to a number of appraisers, expecting them...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models