Tagged: pictures

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...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

ClearVal Value IS So ClearCut - What IS a “ClearVal Appraisal” 162

What IS a “ClearVal Appraisal”?

Clear Capital ClearVal… Value Not So ClearCut… I’ve finally had an opportunity to read a hybrid ‘appraisal’ start to finish. All may read the unedited, non-redacted version in all its glory… or infamy, as the case may be. Please click here (report also embedded below) and read it first. I’ll wait right here. Finished? Great. One thing is clear. It is not an appraisal by any current accepted definition that I am familiar with. Ironically, there is also very little that is clear as far as support for the opined values is concerned. (I’m old fashioned and think it should...

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

Senior Citizen Homeowner Rejects Hybrid Appraisal - AppraisersBlogs 27

Homeowner Rejects Hybrid Appraisal

Appraiser Alert: Don’t Mess with a 4’ 10” Senior Citizen! Last week I called a borrower to schedule the appraisal appointment. She asked me some very odd questions; “Are you a licensed appraiser? What is your license number? How can I verify this information?” Well I had never been asked any of these questions in my entire career, but I answered as there really wasn’t anything I was hiding. It was 19 degrees outside when I arrived at the property and this senior citizen, not more than 4 feet 10 inches tall, was sitting on the porch. I proceeded up the porch...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

MLS Photographs to Be Used for Comparable Sales Says Freddie Mac 23

MLS Comp Photos

Using MLS photographs for comparable sales… In its September 2017 Bulletin, Freddie Mac updated its appraisal requirements. One change worth noting is the use of MLS photographs for comparable sales. Freddie Mac now allows copies of MLS photographs to be used for comparable sales without an explanation from the appraiser. While most appraisers welcome this change, others believe that this is another step to remove the appraiser from the process. One appraiser commented: “Anyone that thinks this is great should think about the long term. Freddie is now saying you don’t need your own pictures to prove you did an...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Trending

Significant Appraisal Assistance, Outsourcing & Third-Party Blues 25

Third Party Blues

What is the significant part of significant contribution? Most lenders would rather not do the work of cultivating and curating a panel of appraisers. This is largely why AMCs exist. AMCs, in turn, quietly off-load some of their activities to other subcontracted entities. Some AMCs contract out state licensing and registration compliance responsibilities to outside concerns. A few use portals to send out engagements to their panel of appraisers. Others farm out payroll and invoicing. Still others outsource their QC work. This begs the question: What exactly do some AMC’s provide…directly? Some appraisers, too, don’t seem to be interested in...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal Organizations / IDFPR / Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation

Digital Masking of People a Fair Housing Requirement of Mythodology 27

AMC Fair Housing Mythodology

AMCs are on notice to cease demanding and insisting that appraisers do digital staging. You’ve seen the AMC’s orders. “Appraiser is to obscure, blur or remove individuals from photos.” Why? Fair housing laws say so, that’s why. Do they? I had my first settlement conference with an AMC recently. Appraisers have been participating in settlement conferences with Appraisal Board members and Department attorneys for years. Because there is no Board for AMCs, the opportunity falls to me. At issue was the ubiquitous “client requirement” involving digital masking of people from images. While lenders and AMCs wave the Fair Housing penalty...

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

13

Original Comparable Photos

I recently received an AMC update and reminder about the need for and why actual comparable photos are necessary. My reply: Original Comparable Photographs: Scope of Work Point 3: Inspection of the comparable sales from at least the street. This requirement does not tie the appraiser to a specific time for that inspection. Geographical competence would have the appraiser in the area of the comparables many times, and depending on the appraiser’s experience, for many years. Taking a comparable photo a month, six months, a year or more after the sale, does not represent the sale’s condition at the time...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Quality Monitoring / Appraisers News

5

Do Associates Need to Be Licensed to Take Comp Photos?

Do Associates Need to Be Licensed to Take Photos for a Property Inspection? I received a great question in my email the other day: I am writing on behalf of one of our appraisal managers who is a certified in Illinois. He wants to send one of his associates only to take the photos for a property inspection, but the associate is unlicensed. Is he authorized to do so, or would the associate need a temporary license of some kind? In some states this is considered clerical work, and some states are considered volunteer states, so a license is not required as long as the certified appraiser clarifies in the report who took the...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / IDFPR / Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation

10

Drive By Comp Pictures and Appraisers Safety

Rethinking Drive By Comp Pictures I posted the following true (and scary) experience on Facebook a few days ago: “I just had to file a police report. I was taking a picture of a house from the street for a drive-by pre-foreclosure. The owner ran out of the home and stood in front of my car. He demanded to know what I was doing. He walked around to the driver’s window, and I calmly explained to him that I was taking a picture for the bank. He got very verbally abusive and demanded to know why. I told him it was...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Technology / Appraisers News

Sanitizing appraisal images 1

Picture This! If You Dare!

Images of personal items and people must go! Crime and Punishment The appraiser who took the interior image below is currently serving a ten year sentence in the Fair Housing Maximum Security Prison outside of Atlanta. The charges ranged from willful imaging of stockings hung with care to wanton display of a nutcracker and malicious showcasing of Micky and Minnie without their written consent. Actually, the image below was taken by yours truly about a decade ago and somehow survived the underwriting process. The mythology of what constitutes a Fair Housing violation continues to vex this profession like some movie...

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

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