Tagged: Fannie Mae

Lender Contributions FNMA Policy Adding Fuel to the Confusion... 6

Concession Reporting Confusion

…how are these "lender contributions" identified… Appraisers are ‘required’ to report comparable sales or financing concessions that benefit a borrower in the GSE form appraisal report, on the second line in the comparison grid (as a negative adjustment). Secondly, for subject properties, appraisers are ‘required’ to report any concession benefiting the borrower on page 1 of the report form. Subject concession amount is NOT entered on the Comparable grid. Well now, FNMA has issued a modification to their Selling Guide (which takes effect as of 4/03/18) – SEL–2018-03 – (I have added type face enhancements): Lender Contributions With this update we are...

FRT Not Reflecting the Majority of the Mortgage Lending Environment 6

Watering Down FRT Definition

Definition of FRT simply does not reflect the majority of the mortgage lending environment… So what exactly is a “federally related transaction”, or FRT for short? Wait, that’s not the right question. Let’s start here: What is NOT an FRT? It’s not a mortgage loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration. It’s not lending underpinned by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs home loan program. It certainly isn’t a loan that’s sold to a Government Sponsored Enterprise (or GSE), like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Just considering a loan for sale to those two entities is enough to fall outside the...

Price of this Fiasco May be the Downfall of the US Real Estate Market 16

The Price of Big Data Valuation Fiasco

"Price" of this Fiasco may be the Downfall of the American Real Estate Market… I Choose Not to Be Part of the Big Data Valuation Revolution The big data and automated valuation explosion will ultimately destroy the real estate industry and it will take decades for it to recover. The facts are, we live and work in a price-per-square-foot industry. The square footage data used in the so-called “official record” in local tax records is in error enough to alter home values and it’s an equal opportunity offender – values can be too low or too high. And, it’s wrong...

Appraisal Management Companies AMCs Have Failed 63

AMCs Have Failed

…it will be the appraisal management companies that are going to be held to the fire, not the appraiser… In the spring of 2002 my wife and I bought our third house; an older cape cod in a great school system where our son would start kindergarten in the fall and his sister the year after. This house literally was 1970 inside. It had deep red shag carpet in the family room and sculptured avocado green carpet upstairs. Not to worry, it blended well with the sunshine yellow stove, bright orange counter top and turquoise and pink bathrooms. After 3...

Appraisers Knew Fannie Mae Would Need Another Bailout 46

Kudos to Rep Hensarling!

Kudos to Congressman Member Jeb Hensarling! House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) is one of the few federal watchdogs that ‘gets it’ on Fannie Mae’s & all GSE’s operations. All appraisers that have watched Fannie Mae’s changes in policies over the past 3+ years knew it was only a matter of time before they would need another taxpayer bailout. What we didn’t know was that it would be this soon. Most of us assumed it would be after the next crash that their reckless policies trigger. Reading the recent press release from the House Financial Services Committee, my...

BPO Outsourced to India Replacing Appraisals 27

BPOs ‘Made in India’

$10 a pop ‘Made in India’ BPO… When saying you’re 'sari' just won’t do. The Blackstone Group is nothing short of legendary. To say it is a 'Big Deal' is an understatement squared. A little background from their website. “Who We Are Our investments are designed to preserve and grow our limited partners’ capital, provide financial security for millions of retirees, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutional and individual investors, and contribute to overall economic growth.” An honorable & worthy objective by any measure. Helping retirees on fixed income, little old ladies, grandmothers and mothers, albeit wealthy ones I’d guess. Sovereign...

Suburban Inside Urban City Limits 26

Suburban Inside Urban City Limits – Really?

Pre-filled template with ‘Suburban’ already checked… Appraisers, Another appraisal report was delivered by a homing pigeon to my windowsill the other day. After leaving a ‘deposit’ on the sill that kind of matches the goop I observed in the report, off it went. The subject property is within a built-up neighborhood area within the largest city in this particular area; it is within city limits. The neighborhood was developed in the 1950’s and 60’s. It is fully built out (i.e., all subdivided lots are developed) and has a couple of neighborhood parks. Population density is similar to other areas within...

Reform America's Broken Housing Finance System 12

Reform Our Broken Housing Finance System

Hensarling Lays Out Principles for Housing Finance Reform, Expresses Support for Bipartisan Approach “I stand ready to negotiate….with any other stakeholder that shares my belief that America deserves a sustainable housing finance system, and deserves one now.” WASHINGTON – House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) today outlined reforms to fix America’s broken housing finance system. During a speech at a conference on the future of the U.S. housing market, Chairman Hensarling said he would work on a bipartisan basis to come up with a reform package provided it included certain key principles. He also pointed to a proposal authored...

Hacked! Are We to Rely on FNMA to Keep Our Private Tax Info Protected? 12

Is Your Private Tax Info Protected?

Even the Pentagon gets hacked! Do Consumers really KNOW how their loan application data is being handled? Having worked for IRS, I know it is against the law for any government employee to divulge specific (identifiable) taxpayer information without exceptional effort to get advance approval. There is no legal way for that personally identifiable taxpayer information to get into the public domain without the taxpayers specific written permission for it. Even inside IRS, we were required to protect the identification of the taxpayer in any case related situational discussions where we sought each others advice. We could talk about the...

Markets & Big Data Fool Proved Forecasting 10

I Got It Wrong…

“…after forty years of studying markets, I got it wrong…” As time goes on, the one thing that appears to be both a societal and financial markets constant, is our inability to learn from our past mistakes. Late, a couple of nights ago (10/23/17), while channel surfing, I happened on an economics program intended to explain the financial crisis of 2008. My apologies for referring to a programming without its name or network. Instead, I had to consider the person who was the primary focal point of the program: Hyman Minsky (see link to The Economist here). Before reading the...

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