Some years ago I was a certified appraiser and a licensed RE broker in CA.

I took a job advising a widow how to negotiate the best price for her house on a key lot backing to a busy street.  it was an ordinary home in a tract neighborhood and prices were around $45,000.

The Key lot was just off the freeway in a community which 25,000 sf of area was required for a gas station.  The offeror came from the adjoining owner who only had 15,000 sf.  Three of the five major stations had locations within this five mile strip of freeway.  prices were going for $300,000 to $500,000.

The best value of the property was for joinder with house being a penalty. The city had allowed several similar zone changes over the years.

An appraiser could have met USPAP with a value of $40,- $50,000

A Realtor would have been sued for not representing his client for a share of the whole..

I advised the client as a Realtor charging a reasonable appraisal fee and felt I could defend myself.

The AI was an affiliate of the of the NAR.  They merged with others were sued for not adequately representing the SRA or the SREA members.  The loss of members was ,I believe critical to the profession,  many of which believe can continue as technicians, not advancing as professionals.

don

I like the way you think.

The lending industry has lost its way. This is a direct result of too big to fail and liability being shifted onto tax payers if another horrendous implosion happens in the real estate market.

I understand USPAP is trying to be a living document that responds flexibly to the changing market, but weakening standards helps no one.

The ideal for the lending world appears to be infinite loans and infinite growth. The medical community has a word for unrestricted, unlimited, and unregulated growth: cancer.

1. So much for the Uniform part of any Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.

2. “Evaluations” and Hybrid or Third Party Inspection Reports (Called APPRAISALS by many of their hucksters) are so ambiguously defined that ALL could potentially fall under USPAP exceptions…& I believe that is the intent

Lets try something different this time with exposure draft comments to USPAP. Instead of tweaking specific line items, let’s just go ahead and make two fundamental changes.

USPAP will now become “The 57 Flavors of Varietal Valuation” (T57 for short) to be individually added to the definitions section allowing complete elimination of SR1 and SR2 (soon with SR3 and SR4 to follow).

By not requiring any specific rules or standards, American businesses and TAF can save millions on lobbying to change them immediately upon their adoption as is presently done.

Guidance in lieu of rules or standards will be contained in and limited to the name of each T57 product.

Let’s also try a novel approach with respect to report types. Lets have a:

(1) Fully Self Contained Appraisal Report (self explanatory);

(2) A Summary Appraisal Report wherein data and analysis is summarized in sufficient detail to be properly understood by intended users and lastly

(3) A Restricted Appraisal Report wherein data, analysis and conclusions are simply stated and where such reports may ONLY be prepared for use by unique individual human beings (not corporate or business entities).

It may be a little confusing initially but start off by using the Summary Report version for most FRTs employing myriad forms that already exist for this purpose.

Since the above is clearly overly restrictive for the profiteering needs of movers and shakers of MISMO and other stakeholders, we could also add a 4th category called “Exempted Valuation Products” (EVPs) which may be ANY written or verbal report that prominently declares “This is not an appraisal under any accepted definition or format.” No rules required.