Category: Trending

House Measurement by Property Data Collector Gone Wrong 142

House Measurement by Property Data Collector Gone Wrong

The lender allowed an unlicensed property data collector give bad data to the appraiser… I work for this lender and they will not let my trainee inspect. The owners are now underwater by more than $100,000…  I’m sad and I’m mad! I recently took on a measure job for a client who was questioning the square footage of their home. The couple bought the house at the height of the market last year. They paid 12% over list price to get the house. They put an appraisal waiver in the contract which meant they could not walk away if the...

American National Standards Institute / ANSI / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Bringing More People Into a Dying Profession! 84

Bringing More People Into a Dying Profession!

Some people want to bring more people (primarily of color, which is great) into a dying profession. But the profession is being killed off by (mostly white!) people who think technology is the golden spoon to accurate valuations.  Appraisers, I’ve been studying, and writing about since 2006, all kind of issues surrounding our profession, and frankly some currently does not make sense. As many know, ‘we’ have been accused of not having “enough black people” in appraiser ranks. The claim is that blacks only represent 3% or so of the total population of appraisers. The people engaged in blaming appraisers...

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

All This Will Do is CREATE BIAS! 29

All This Will Do is CREATE BIAS!

All this will do is CREATE BIAS… How does one stay unbiased if they repeatedly get sued or raked over the coals every time they do an honest, true appraisal that does not meet the expectation of untrained members of the general public…  Does bias exist? Of course. Does it exist in appraising? Rarely, if ever. Not one of the publicly aired cases has shown any verifiable facts or data to prove their claims. Bias in appraising is rare and far less than in nearly all other vocations. Why? Because appraisers are and have been, for decades, already held to...

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

HUD ROV Process to Address Appraisal Bias 37

HUD ROV Process to Address ‘Appraisal Bias’

At a recent event at the Brookings Institute, HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge announced that HUD is creating a ROV process for people seeking FHA financing to request a review of their appraisal if they believe the results may have been skewed by racial bias. For example, a homeowner who is in the process of refinancing their home with an FHA-insured mortgage can take steps to ensure that their appraisal is fair. HUD 20.23-011 “HUD is committed to making the appraisal process fair nationwide. We must eliminate bias in home valuations so that everyone can equally reap the benefit of...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Federal Housing Administration / FHA / HUD

AMCs Constant Bid Request... It's Theft of Services! 30

It’s Theft of Services!

It’s theft of services to constantly think it’s okay to drain appraisers time and resources as if we’re advocates of the AMC; all our time and energy constantly available to AMCs so they can shop us to infinity on a per diem assignment pattern forever to increase their own profits. They condition appraisers to become advocates of the AMC or you don’t get anything. That’s not how an ethical appraiser should operate. If they returned cost savings to consumers instead of using that as a financial incentive to select the lowest priced appraiser, it would be different. But as we...

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

Appraisers the Convenient Scapegoats 19

Appraisers the Convenient Scapegoats

The appraisers are the convenient scapegoats every time.  Anytime the real estate market takes a hit, 99% of the time it is because of banking and lending practices. The appraisers are the convenient scapegoats every time. During the 1980s it was the commercial side, yet residential appraisers received both barrels of double-odd buck. Then in 2008 again: stated income, 40 year loans, predatory lending (REFINANCING), NO money down (no skin in the game); people used their homes as a slot machine that paid out every time; that is as long as the market values continued to rise. Predatory lenders had...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Average AMC Appraisal Fee 2021 vs 2022 134

Average AMC Appraisal Fee to the Appraiser

Average AMC appraisal fee to the appraiser: AMCs are taking far more of the borrower-paid fee this year than they did last year.  Appraisers, I recently sent out a message asking appraisers to send me three data points comparing borrower-paid appraisal cost, and average AMC paid assignment fees in October, November 2021 and the same months in 2022 – for SFR assignments. My intent was to provide actual useful AMC-paid fee data compared to what the borrower pays for ‘the appraisal’, without revealing specific fees in any particular location. Replies to that message were much less than I expected, and only...

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

The VA Required to Encourage Hybrids - Senate Passes HR 7735 18

The VA Required to Encourage Hybrids – Senate Passes HR 7735

The VA will now be required to encourage hybrid appraisals.  If you are a VA Appraiser, here’s a bit of news you need to keep tabs on. Senate Passes VA Appraisal Modernization Measure – theMReport.com The U.S. Senate has announced the passage of HR 7735, the Improving Access to the VA Home Loan Benefit Act of 2022. Under the terms of HR 7735, sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mike Bost, the VA will be required to: Issue certification requirements for appraisers; Execute minimum property requirements; Review the process for selecting and reviewing comparable sales; Implement quality control processes; Establish...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Political Action / The US Department of Veterans Affairs / Trending

Preference Falsification - Why Licensees Parrot Notions They Know Are Untrue 20

‘Preference Falsification’ – Why Licensees Parrot Notions They Know Are Untrue

Preference falsification has resulted in some appraisers parroting talking points they know to be untrue.  People who live under authoritarian regimes rarely reveal their true feelings. They get used to lying. Parroting the party line becomes second nature in oppressive societies. It’s not a reflection of one’s moral compass but a survival mechanism. In his book “Private Truths, Public Lies,” Timur Kuran, an economist and political scientist at Duke University, writes about this disconnect, known as “preference falsification.” Preference falsification is dangerous because it lends an air of permanence to structures that are brittle and susceptible to sudden collapse. Kuran...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / HUD / The US Department of Housing and Urban Development / Trending

AVMs The Not So Accurate Magic Bullet 21

AVMs… The Not So Accurate Magic Bullet

That article mentioned three on-line services which claim to provide accurate property values. In alphabetical order, those services were REDFIN, ReMax, and Zillow.  Folks, in all the diatribes against appraisers by people who believe “we” have built-in systemic bias, the topic of AVMs has come up. Some of the diatribers apparently think that using an AVM will magically produce an accurate property valuation, while eliminating bias, and appraisers. Well, not so fast. A while ago I saw a ‘consumer facing’ article telling people how they could get the value on their home. That article mentioned three on-line services which claim...

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

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