Portable Architecture You Can Roll, Wear, Tow, or Float

A sauna on skis and 11 other dwellings made to move.

Excerpt: Some of the examples are ideal for recreation, such as the compact-cute, California-made Golden Gate 2 camper, with a rounded timber frame, portholes, and a spot for a surfboard. For lovers of winter sports, the Nomad Sauna, which was built on a lake in Norway, includes an internal ice-hole for intensely refreshing breaks from the heat.
It is not all fun and games-others are designed for important, practical use. It can also be used to provide shelter during a crisis, or for protection in extreme weather.
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Sleeping lawyer at mortgage fraud trial

Excerpt: A businessman will get a new trial on mortgage fraud charges because his defense attorney was seen sleeping by the judge, witnesses and the federal court jurors who convicted him last year.
U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose ruled James Nassida was denied a fair trial because Stan Levenson dozed during the October trial. Levenson has acknowledged that he fell asleep because he was taking cold medicines that made him drowsy.
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What are views worth?

To figure out the premium that these vistas can command, the realtor.com® data team compared the prices for all the homes for sale on our site that highlight these sought-after panoramas, and then compared them to similar-size properties in adjacent ZIP codes with no view to speak of.

Here are a few:
4. Chicago, IL: Lake Michigan
Median list price for homes with views: $525,000
Killer view premium: 96.8%

1. Manhattan, NY: Central Park
Median list price for homes with views: $3,795,000
Killer view premium: 39.9%

My comment: Percent of value varies widely. Of course, the total dollar amounts vary even more! I love data!!

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Fannie Fiction and Fact: comp selection, adjustments, market
conditions, appraisal resubmissions, and lots more info,
including AQM and Risk Scores

 
In the May 2017 issue of the paid Appraisal Today
Excerpt: COMPARABLE SELECTION
 
FICTION
– Comparables must be within 6 months.
– Comparables must be within 1 mile.
– Comparables must be within+/-10% of the subject’s GLA
FACTS FROM THE SELLING GUIDE
“Comparable sales that have closed within the last 12 months should be used in the appraisal; however, the best and most appropriate comparable sales may not always be the most recent sales.”
“Comparable sales from within the same neighborhood (including subdivision or project) as the subject property should be used when possible.”
“There are no specific distances referenced in the Guide. Comps should have “similar physical & legal characteristics when compared
to the subject. These characteristics include, but are not limited to, site, room count, gross living area, style, and condition”.
To read the full article, plus 2+ years of previous issues, subscribe to the paid Appraisal Today.
 
If this article gave you one good idea for handling Underwriter hassles with Facts, it is worth the subscription price!! 
$8.25 per month, $24.75 per quarter, $89 per year (Best Buy)  
or $99 per year or $169 for two years 
Subscribers get, FREE: past 18+ months of past newsletters 
plus 4 Special Reports, plus 2 Appraiser Marketing Books!!
To purchase the paid Appraisal Today newsletter go to
www.appraisaltoday.com/products  or call 800-839-0227.
If you are a paid subscriber and did not get the May 2017 issue, emailed May 1, 2017, please send an email to info@appraisaltoday.com  and we will send it to you!! Or, hit the reply button. Be sure to put in a comment requesting it.
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Lawyer: Zillow ‘Zestimate’ illegal appraisal hampering home’s sale; Zillow: Only estimate, not appraisal

Excerpts:
In the lawsuit, Andersen alleges Zillow’s “Zestimate” – a figure the company says it generates for many homes, whether for sale or not, based on publicly available information about those homes and on information supplied by homeowners about their own houses – has significantly undervalued her home, making it difficult for her to sell her home for the price she believes the house is worth…

My comment: Very interesting!! Check out Jonathan Miller’s comments (below) and Phil Crawford’s Voice of Appraisal interview with the plaintiff at https://youtu.be/EjTXMCAd6Gw

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Appraiserville – Zillow lawsuit, National Real Estate Appraisers Day, Coester fees to lender and appraiser, AI and SRAs (again)

By Jonathan Miller
Here are a few of the Very Interesting Miller comments:
– I think every appraiser needs to testify at least once in their career – hopefully early on. You see the appraisal process much differently when a lawyer is asking you to explain yourself.
– A while back, the WSJ interviewed me because of my Zestimate (I have a 200-year-old historic home), was 5x what it was optimistically worth.

Two more of the topics:
– January 7th is National Real Estate Appraisers Day
– Coester Chronicles: Appraisers Get LESS THAN HALF The Appraisal Fee

Check out the Sandwich Alignments and McDonald’s Frork humor at top of page ;>
Scroll down to Appraiserville (near the bottom of the page, just under the big foto of The Architect of Hollywood)
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HOW TO USE THE NUMBERS BELOW. Appraisals are ordered after the loan application. These numbers tell you the future for the next few weeks. For more information on how they are compiled, go to www.mbaa.org 
Note: I publish a graph of this data every month in my paid monthly newsletter, Appraisal Today. For more information or get a FREE sample issue go to https://www.appraisaltoday.com/products.htm or send an email to info@appraisaltoday.com . Or call 800-839-0227, MTW 8AM to noon, Pacific time.

Mortgage applications increased 2.4 percent from one week earlier

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 30, 2015) – WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 10, 2017) – Mortgage applications increased 2.4 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 5, 2017.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 3 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 3 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent from one week earlier to its highest level since October 2015. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 6 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Purchase Index increased 2 percent from the previous week to its highest level since April 2009.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 41.9 percent of total applications from 41.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 8.2 percent of total applications.

The FHA share of total applications increased to 10.5 percent from 10.4 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications remained unchanged at 10.8 percent from the week prior. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.8 percent from the week prior.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($424,100 or less) remained unchanged at 4.23 percent, with points decreasing to 0.31 from 0.32 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $424,100) increased to 4.22 percent from 4.18 percent, with points increasing to 0.28 from 0.23 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA increased to 4.09 percent from 4.06 percent, with points increasing to 0.28 from 0.24 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.50 percent from 3.51 percent, with points increasing to 0.40 from 0.32 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs increased to 3.36 percent from 3.29 percent, with points increasing to 0.15 from 0.14 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.

1 Comment
  1. Estimates can be really, really wrong. Estimated prices are often too big or too small, depends on company. When you get an appraisal, hired company has to do that with a much better precision.

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