Appraisals and Altered Listing Photos

Excerpt: Folks, a colleague named Barry Cleverdon was in a car accident three weeks ago and he has been in a coma ever since. With his wife’s permission here is a GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/support-barry-cleverdon   o help support him.

Barry Cleverdon has over 35 years of appraisal experience in California and he’s been teaching appraisal classes since 1991. On February 5th while on his way to the Real Estate Appraisers Association (REAA) https://www.reaa.org  appraiser meeting in Sacramento he got into an accident with a large truck. After the incident he actually walked to a Walmart, called a cab, and was driven home. But he fell in his front yard and was then rushed to the hospital where he had surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. He has been in a coma since then. He is moving his limbs but not opening his eyes. He is in ICU.

3/2/19 update: Barry is now breathing on his own and is off the life support machines. He’s being moved out of ICU but he still has not regained consciousness. His wife Marie is doing well considering.

My comments: I have known Barry for quite a while and have met him at REAA meetings, taken one of his classes, etc. He is a very dedicated appraiser and instructor. His appraiser friends are helping his wife deal with his appraisal and CE businesses.

This can happen to any of us. Many appraisers drive a lot. I was the major earner in my family as my husband was retired. I always had disability and life insurance so he could be financially supported if something happened to me.

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Excerpt: Nile Niami hosts over-the-top bashes plotted to attract buzz and buyers to his supermansions amid a cooling real estate market: “In my life, everything is for sale.”

The theme of Nile Niami’s first “underground” networking party was Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, which is considered a moral warning on excess and erotic derangement. So as the queue formed outside the mansion on Londonderry Place in the Hollywood Hills on Jan. 18, expectations were running high.

Great fotos and interesting comments at:

Excerpt: Recent Cyber Attacks on CoreLogic and a Large Appraisal Firm Expose a Real Business Risk to Valuation Firms and Companies.

As two recent attacks show, cyber crimes pose a real risk – legally and economically – to appraisal firms, management companies and other businesses involved in property analytics. If an operation like CoreLogic can be victimized by criminal hackers seeking property information, as it was in an attack earlier this month, any valuation firm or property analytics company is at risk. And, more seriously, the losses suffered by an appraisal firm in the separate cyber attack discussed below demonstrate how devastating the financial harm can be from an attack that spills valuation data onto the “dark web.” That appraisal firm, with 350+ commercial and residential appraisers in Australia, has been suspended for new appraisal orders by the four biggest banks in that country and by other clients as well.

My comment: A few months ago, my main email address (ann@appraisaltoday.com) was hacked and I could not access it. Fortunately, my tech guys were able to fix it the same day because it was an unsophisticated hacker. They said to use lastpass to better manage my passwords. Or, you can use other software.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 6, 2019) – Mortgage applications decreased 2.5 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 1, 2019. The results for the week ending February 22, 2019, included an adjustment for the Washington’s Birthday (Presidents’ Day) holiday.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 10 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 2 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 11 percent compared with the previous week and was 1 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

“Slightly higher mortgages rates last week led to a decrease in application volume. Furthermore, the average loan size for purchase applications increased to a record high, led by a rise in the average size of conventional loans. This suggests that move-up and higher-end buyers have so far become a greater share of the spring market,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Overall, conventional purchase loans are up 2.1 percent relative to last year, indicating that homebuyers continue to be inspired by the stable rate environment and the modest increase in housing supply.”

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 40.0 percent of total applications from 40.4 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 7.4 percent of total applications.

The FHA share of total applications increased to 10.3 percent from 10.2 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications decreased to 10.4 percent from 10.7 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged from 0.6 percent the week prior.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($484,350 or less) increased to 4.67 percent from 4.65 percent, with points increasing to 0.44 from 0.42 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $484,350) increased to 4.41 percent from 4.40 percent, with points decreasing to 0.25 from 0.29 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA increased to 4.66
percent from 4.64 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.48 (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 increased to 4.08 percent from 4.00 percent, with points increasing to 0.46 from 0.38 (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 4.08 percent from 3.95 percent, with points decreasing to 0.39 from 0.40 (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.