copyright - Appraisers Blogs

The Harbor Model: Where Appraisers Take the Helm

AppraisersBlogs — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 12:30:17 +0000

The Harbor Model offers a bold blueprint for restoring transparency, authorship, and oversight in a valuation industry long dominated by silent data extraction. The author of this article has chosen to remain anonymous, not out of fear, but out of necessity. Since 2012, they’ve been developing a disruptive valuation model that challenges entrenched interests in the appraisal and AMC industries. Their work has drawn direct confrontations from AMC owners and industry insiders, many of whom are threatened by the implications of these proposals. Anonymity, in this case, is a shield, not from scrutiny, but from retaliation. If you want to...

The post The Harbor Model: Where Appraisers Take the Helm appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Obscure Federal Official Has Hatched ‘Sick Chicken’ in Housing Sector

Jeremy Bagott — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 12:30:58 +0000

The case eventually found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it came to be known to the public as the “Sick Chicken Case” It was the Great Depression’s bleakest year – 1933. At President Roosevelt’s urging, Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act, a New Deal bill that partially ceded lawmaking authority to private organizations and industry boards to develop codes of conduct that would then be enforced on citizens as binding law. The owners of poultry producer Schechter Poultry Corp. were indicted for violating the new private business code for the poultry industry. The chicken men lawyered...

The post Obscure Federal Official Has Hatched ‘Sick Chicken’ in Housing Sector appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

ChatGPT Appraisal Error Sparks Ethics Debate

AppraisersBlogs — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 12:30:33 +0000

A recent post by an appraiser trainee on an online forum described a troubling situation involving the use of ChatGPT to generate content for an appraisal report. The trainee admitted to using ChatGPT to write a market summary section without properly reviewing it first. This resulted in factual inaccuracies making it into the final report delivered to the client. Upon discovering this, the client, a local bank, threatened to file a complaint against the trainee. The trainee is now considering falsely claiming to have personally written the problematic section in an attempt to avoid consequences. “Hey everyone, I recently used...

The post ChatGPT Appraisal Error Sparks Ethics Debate appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Reindeer Standards As Unenforceable As Appraisal Code

Jeremy Bagott — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 13:30:21 +0000

There’s a lot to like about the bylaws of the Association of World Reindeer Herders. The code defines how herders promote professional, commercial and cultural contact in all matters related to reindeer herding. The document sets the gold standard for disseminating information world over about reindeer husbandry. The bylaws were approved at the first Congress of World Reindeer Herders on March 2, 1997. If you don’t like the 1997 version of the bylaws, there’s a 2001 version, a 2009 version and a 2013 version. Are the group’s bylaws enforceable in the United States? No. As commendable and insightful as they...

The post Reindeer Standards As Unenforceable As Appraisal Code appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

‘Pesky’ Words. Keeping Appraisers out of Language Purgatory

Dave Towne — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:30:29 +0000

Appraisers, on July 17, 2023, a document from Freddie Mac was circulated to numerous appraisers around the US which identified certain words and other info that can be considered to be ‘BIASED’ in appraisal reports. Here is the Link to the Bulletin. We need to step back for a moment and carefully analyze and consider why that was done, and what it means to appraisers. In many ways, appraisers forget the purpose of the appraisal assignment – which is to value real estate. In other words, the physical structures tied to the land. But too often, elements of personal or...

The post ‘Pesky’ Words. Keeping Appraisers out of Language Purgatory appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

How U.S. Home Valuations Are Being Subverted

Jeremy Bagott — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:30:16 +0000

At the crossroads of it all is a campaign to weaken or eliminate valuations… The nonprofit is now exploring ways it can set standards for automated valuations… Expect greater distortions from Freddie and Fannie’s plodding and committee-driven foray into automated valuations. Sometimes when the hair on the back of your neck stands up, there’s a reason for it. The nation’s $11 trillion mortgage market has been nationalized. This coup occurred in broad daylight and gradually. With Freddie and Fannie now in their second decade in federal conservatorship, the prospect that they will ever again be subjected to the watchful eye...

The post How U.S. Home Valuations Are Being Subverted appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Two Cheers for an ‘Evolved’ Beltway Entrepreneur… David Bunton

Jeremy Bagott — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 13:30:33 +0000

We come not to bury David Bunton, the public figure, but to praise David Bunton, the evolved Beltway organism. Who is David Bunton? Bunton has made a small fortune and canvassed the world at the helm of a 16-employee Washington, D.C., nonprofit that publishes a copyrighted code of conduct. The code gives his tiny fiefdom a big say in how collateral in the nation’s $11 trillion mortgage market is valued. He is a figure with outsized power in an immense market. His day-to-day funding source? For 30 years, his nonprofit, known as the Appraisal Foundation, has sold copies of its...

The post Two Cheers for an ‘Evolved’ Beltway Entrepreneur… David Bunton appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Justice for Texas Appraiser? You Bet. Price Tag: $99,000

Jeremy Bagott — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 12:30:32 +0000

The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board is a hot mess, but one with a malicious and callous streak. That makes it dangerous to licensees. The Unclean Hands Doctrine is a legal defense. It helps prevent petitioners who are engaged in fraud, deceit or bad faith from recovering certain damages from others. If you’re a known cattle rustler yourself, the Unclean Hands defense may keep you from recovering damages if your own cattle go missing. It’s also sometimes called the “Clean Hands Doctrine” or the “Dirty Hands Doctrine.” Based on this doctrine, the feculent fingers of the Texas Appraiser Licensing...

The post Justice for Texas Appraiser? You Bet. Price Tag: $99,000 appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Exposing Occupational Licensing Abuses Nationwide

Jeremy Bagott — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 12:30:02 +0000

She went from viewing occupational licensing as a necessary means to protect the safety and welfare of the public to a cynical tool promoted by established businesses to erect barriers against innovation and competition. Her experience as a licensed real property appraiser in West Virginia turned out to be the perfect training ground for the study of public corruption, restraint of trade and government overreach. Who would have thought it? After 27 years of being whipsawed by West Virginia’s notorious appraiser-licensing apparatus, the Appraisal Foundation – and the latter’s continually changing copyrighted standards – and a complicit federal monitor, Lori...

The post Exposing Occupational Licensing Abuses Nationwide appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Floor Plans Could Be an Issue in Appraising

Dave Towne — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 12:30:05 +0000

…concerns that appraisers could be sued for making floor plans of a home… I’m an AI “member” (because I pay membership dues) even though I’m not supposed to say it that way. Technically, I am an Appraisal Institute Practicing Affiliate. Regardless, an AI email earlier on 6/29/22 had this news: Supreme Court Rejects Floor Plan Case; Appraisers Vulnerable The Supreme Court on June 27 rejected a case involving the use of floor plans in marketing materials. Multiple real estate firms petitioned the court to review the case, contending the Eighth Circuit incorrectly ruled that using floor plans in marketing materials...

The post Floor Plans Could Be an Issue in Appraising appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Are Reports Intellectual Property?

Dustin Harris — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 12:30:01 +0000

Recently one of my Mastermind students asked about Intellectual Property. He told me that he’d had an associate leave his firm to go solo. Later, he was reading one of his former-associate’s reports and found the now-independent associate’s reports looked a lot like his in format, and even language. My student asked me if this was wrong. Well, I’m not a lawyer, but there are some sound issues to consider here. If you write something, if you are its author, it is your intellectual property. You can either trademark it (like a logo), or copyright it (like a novel). We...

The post Are Reports Intellectual Property? appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

USPAP & Questions on Confidentiality

Dustin Harris — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 13:30:11 +0000

How can using such a contractor not be a violation? In the context of a real estate appraisal, especially a residential real estate appraisal for a lender thru an AMC, what is confidential? First, look at USPAP’s definition of confidential information (lines 105 – 108 in the 2018-2019 edition). It says “confidential information [is] information that is either…identified by the client as confidential when providing it to an appraiser and that is not available from any other source; or…classified as confidential or private by applicable law or regulation” (ibid; emphasis added). Notice confidentiality flows to the client, not to any...

The post USPAP & Questions on Confidentiality appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Appraiser’s Response to MyAMC

Michael Ford — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 12:30:36 +0000

Thank you for your invitation to join your panel. I read all your details. They are addressed in the following: I find it unlikely you retain top appraisers nationwide if you think $350 is a reasonable fee in my area. Did you arrive at that by buying Corelogic’s purported ‘independent survey’? I don’t accept 30 day billing from any unproven clients with unspecified volume. Provide a copy of your current Dunn and Bradstreet rating along with a guarantee of a minimum of 25 orders per month, and I will consider deferred billing. Otherwise you would have to pay me by...

The post Appraiser’s Response to MyAMC appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Copyright of Appraisal Reports – Again

Michael Ford — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 12:30:17 +0000

Why do we need a copyright in the first place? Before deciding whether you need to copyright, or whether it is too complex or not I urge all to read the information found in the following link. When I started searching to see what the specific requirements were, I initially thought I’d have to pay a fee and submit each ‘work’ (appraisal report) to the United States Copyright Office. Clearly not a practical process for most of us, even if the fee weren’t so high (about $114.00). I’m pleased to say if is not that complicated, or costly. In fact,...

The post Copyright of Appraisal Reports – Again appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

Unintended Use & Misleading Appraisal Reports

Michael Ford — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 12:30:16 +0000

Unintended and Potentially Misleading At what point do we ALL say enough? When they insist on unlocked PDF, XML or ENV formats that facilitate recipients in removing portions of appraisal reports they don’t like? Too late. When they blacklist appraisers for refusing to make post effective date contract analysis changes? When they set the fees we charge? When they change the scope of work after assignments are completed? When they LIE to borrowers about how much the ‘appraisal fee’ is? Now we have several that think THEY own MY professional work product? Like HELL they do! Any, repeat, ANY appraiser...

The post Unintended Use & Misleading Appraisal Reports appeared on Appraisers Blogs.

CoStar Suing Appraisers for Copyright Violations

Peter Christensen — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 12:30:35 +0000

CoStar accuses the “John Does” of violating CoStar’s copyrights by contributing photos or other information obtained from CoStar to the CompStak database… In the last week, CoStar Realty Information has filed several lawsuits against commercial appraisers and real estate brokers for intentional copyright violations and fraud relating to the alleged use of CoStar property data and photos without proper registration/payment. If you use CoStar, be sure you are doing so properly and within the terms of your license agreement. Examples of the types of alleged situations that have led to CoStar’s recent and past copyright lawsuits are: (1) sharing IDs/passwords, (2) obtaining an...

The post CoStar Suing Appraisers for Copyright Violations appeared on Appraisers Blogs.