REVAA Doesn't Like New NY AMC Law 50

REVAA No Fan of the New NY AMC Law

The NY State Coalition of Appraisers wants you to to know that there is a new AMC law coming into effect at the end of the month and REVAA doesn’t like it. Last December New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Senate Bill S9080 into law, effective at the end of this month. REVAA‘s biggest concern is that it requires all valuations to be performed by appraisers AND invoices must be attached to the report so the consumer knows what the appraiser was paid. This is groundbreaking for our industry. Let’s hope that the word spreads and the consumer is...

AI Efforts Focused on Debasing the Appraisal Professionals 14

Restricted Appraisal Reports Consumer Alert

The Appraisal Institute-pushed SB-70 law I talked about a while back has been in effect since January 1, 2019 and expires December 31, 2019. I just checked back in since it went into effect and was shocked to see this warning on the California’s Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers web site say this: The real estate appraisal process concludes with the appraiser’s opinion of value. Development of an appraisal includes the gathering of facts and evidence, using recognized methods and techniques of analysis, and applying reasoning and judgement. An Appraisal Report is a summary communication of this process and includes the data, relevant evidence,...

Smedley Dingledorf Takes the Job for $275...No Quality or Expertise 75

Smedley Dingledorf Takes the Job for $275

One of my lifetime best friends is Bart Simpson, who is an actual person. We grew up together from elementary school through high school but went our separate geographic ways to college. My other best friend during that era of my life was Harry Benson, who was also the key character in Michael Creighton‘s early best seller, “The Terminal Man” but that’s another story. Bart taught me how to ski and how to make plexiglass cookbook holders (hey it was the 70s). We spent our weekends riding bicycles everywhere, especially into D.C. on weekends to meticulously go through each of the...

USPAP is Unconstitutional & We Don't Have to Follow It, per 2 Appraisers 85

USPAP is Unconstitutional?

Gerald McNamara and Colleen Kudrick were admonished by the board in a five-count takedown. There is a lot of nuances here but the sanctions seemed to be based on the fact that one of the appraisers wasn’t licensed at the time and could not explain how she valued the property. The other who was certified said he did not assist in the preparation but did inspect the property. The client made a complaint and the board investigated. Seemingly doubling down on damaging their reputations, they filed a lawsuit against the appraisal board and seem to be saying that USPAP is...

The Future of Residential Lender Appraisers 8

The Future of Residential Lender Appraisers

What if you don’t want to do desktop bifurcated appraisals or the very tough appraisals that don’t work for AVMs? Or, wait, once again, for the lender market to finally come back. There are many forces trying to get field appraisers out of doing full valuations for mortgage loans. Automation and Artificial Intelligence will increase this trend, as it has done in other professions. For example, Quicken dramatically decreased demand for manual bookkeepers. Once lenders can determine which properties will work with an AVM, there will be fewer human appraisals. Recently, several appraisers emailed and called me saying their non-lender...

12-24 Hour Valuations: How Are We Worth So Little? 13

How Are We Worth So Little?

An appraiser sent me the following email. It has become clear to me that the valuation industry that engages appraisers now places more value on the physical inspection than it does the actual valuation itself. Why? They can’t replicate the interior inspection so the valuation portion is where the fee shaving occurs and believe they can come up with the value themselves or find people that will work for wages that won’t attract people who are competent, but rather, people that are desperate. [Bold for emphasis] Hello, You are receiving this email because you have expressed interest in completing desktop...

The Last Line of Defense... Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying 13

The Last Line of Defense

As I wrote recently, we learned a lot about both our industry and ourselves in 2018. We do provide an invaluable service to the lending community even though most of the mortgage industrial complex doesn’t appreciate or want it, largely because of the moral hazard generated by the taxpayer bailouts of 2008. Our expertise will be shifting to the consumer in the near term with some snapback to mortgage work after this all ends badly in the not so distant future. We just can’t sit around and wait for it. As was said in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” we...

An Extraordinary Year for Appraisers 4

An Extraordinary Year for Appraisers

Some thoughts about what we learned from 2018 to apply to 2019: We have always been our own worst enemy as evidenced by the behavior of AI National who kept thinking up initiatives for its members without asking for membership feedback – remember this when their “taking” initiative is attempted in 2019. Through Appraiserfest and a vibrant appraisal coalition network, we are learning to fend for ourselves and find we all actually like each other. State level political action was the battleground as AI National’s Scott DeBiasio continued to work hard for AI National to further devalue our profession with...

Eliminating the Appraiser? Remember Liar Loans of a Decade Ago? 21

Attack on Appraisers

Remember liar loans of a decade ago? Those same people want to do away with appraisers. My friend and appraisal colleague Ryan Lundquist and I authored a petition on change.org to point out the growing reckless behavior that is enveloping the mortgage process. There’s a proposal from the FDIC, Federal Reserve, and Treasury Department not to require appraisals for some mortgages under $400,000. As we say in the petition, this change can impact several groups in particular: consumers, the taxpayers, the housing market and appraisers. One group not explicitly mentioned in the petition but impacted down the road are real estate agents and brokers....

Valuation Expertise Viewed as a Commodity - Appraisers Blogs 43

Valuation Expertise Viewed as a Commodity

Here’s the math: An appraiser shared an email survey concerning hybrid appraisals. The survey reveals the fees they are thinking of charging. These fees aren’t that different from what I’ve heard elsewhere. It’s actually quite telling on how the AMC/Mortgage Lending industry sees the appraiser’s role in providing a reasonable benchmark on their collateral to make more informed lending decisions. Here’s the scenario – take the $78 national desktop report fee and divide it by the $500 average appraisal fee as quoted by Realtor Magazine. Now think in terms of the inspection versus valuation. valuation expertise is viewed as a...

xml sitemap
blank