Collateral Underwriter – Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) FNMA has a fascination for first patenting garbage, & then implementing it as policy! FNMA simply LIED! Collateral Underwriter IS an automated ‘appraisal review’ despite disclaimers. It was never intended as anything else. Read the patent application below. Before I get into the details, I want to ask each reader to forward this to every appraiser you know. This concerns FNMA’s patent of the seriously flawed techniques and underlying support for their Collateral Underwriter (CU) Risk Rating “System”. It’s time for appraisers to take action against the unreliable system which is unfairly...
Frankly this form is so screwed up! To First American Mortgage Solutions…(copy to appraisers around the US): Do you folks really understand what your PACE form report REALLY is?? It is not an Evaluation report. It is an actual appraisal, disguised very poorly as a so-called Evaluation. Here’s what I found in your form, after actually reading it: “This report is provided for the benefit of the named customer only and is not intended to be, nor shall it be deemed to be, an appraisal or any form of an appraisal.” OK, fine, not an appraisal. The main form page says...
“Do they just want us to go away?” Appraisers Feeling Like Travis… Does anyone remember the Pepsi commercial awhile back that featured Jeff Gordon getting revenge on a guy named Travis from Jalopnik? Watch the commercial below to refresh your memory if you don’t. “Stop sir! This never works! Stop”! Travis yells from the back seat! As Travis’ car was being chased, Travis knew that what was going on wasn’t logical and didn’t make any sense, and it made even less sense to him that his driver didn’t stop the car right away. What Travis didn’t know was, his driver...
Around 1992, representatives of LSI (long before they became completely useless as an AMC) visited us in California to discuss some way to involve automation (as in AVMs) to eliminate appraisals. When I pointed out that they had JUST THANKED me for saving them from a quarter of a million dollars over valuation as a result of pressure from one of their very influential customers, and that the very same issue had arisen from that customers misapplication of data AND their potential misinterpretation of that data, they understood the connection. A KNOWLEDGEABLE human appraiser was required to resolve the difference....
Changes in Appraisal Standards? We have barely got into the “New” 2016-2017 copy of USPAP and the ASB is meeting on February 19, 2016 to discuss making changes to the 2018-2019 edition of USPAP. Here is part of what I have written to the ASB. I believe it should be the duty of every appraiser to write to the Foundation and any board that is contemplating making changes. You have that right, and they will read your comments. Letter to ASB: I have been a real estate appraiser since the mid 1980’s and prior to mandatory licensure. I have been...
Appraisers, Maybe I’m too much of an anal retentive type person, or perhaps it’s because I believe it’s important to use correct terminology. Regardless, I’m very concerned when someone with Chief Appraiser attached to their name attributes an AVM electronic value statement to an actual appraisal opinion produced by a human. So where did this rant come from, you ask? Future of Valuations Marries Automation and Human Instinct Within the article is this statement by the writer: “While AVMs do hold value — they are a cost-effective, fast tool to produce appraisals — the popularity of AVM usage among home...
Since the beginning, Federal Regulation of the industry was initiated to “protect the public. “ FIRREA, USPAP, HVCC, Dodd Frank and state licensing of appraisers and appraisal management companies were initiated with consumer protection as the goal. Customary and reasonable fees, mandated by Dodd Frank, are also to protect the consumer. The Virginia Coalition of Appraiser Professionals supports customary and reasonable fees and believes in order to determine a customary and reasonable fee all things associated must be considered and incorporated into the determination. The below practices by AMC’s are not in the interest of protecting public trust and go...
Taxing the System – Tax Appeal The Department receives a number of appraisal complaints related to property tax assessment appeals each and every year. While most originate with assessors and boards of review, some come from appellants themselves. The most frequent complaint involves alleged undervaluation and advocacy on the part of the appraiser. The local assessor or board of review will allege that the appraiser deliberately omitted more relevant sales by “cherry-picking” distressed sales or choosing sales from inferior locations. Appraisers are not hired guns by counsel. Advocacy is a career-killer. Unlicensed practice is the next most frequent complaint. There...
Appraisers, I have ‘come in contact with’ an appraisal report, produced by a Certified appraiser and its Licensed Trainee – working in the area near my office. It’s clear to me that these two appraisers do not understand trend reporting that this form indicates. By the way, I’m no great fan of the MC form. However, since we are required to use it, we better darn well learn to use it properly. Report what the trends on it show and not something obtained from elsewhere, sometimes called “PFA.” If we don’t, or choose to ignore what the form shows, then the ENTIRE...
We truly live in an incredible world. The age of information and technology has given us more freedom than at any other time in the history of mankind. Just in the last few years, the mobile office has become a reality in such a way that it would be nearly impossible for our clients to know much about our physical office at all. Since most of us have little to no walk-in traffic, running an appraisal office from a spare bedroom at home or even from the lanai of your Belizean condo is not out of the realm of possibility....
