The 20 appraisal events that will surface, occur, or continue on into 2022 By Tim Andersen, MAI
Editor’s note: some of these are controversial! Please leave your comments, and read other appraisers’ comments, below.
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- No particular order. Some appraisers will discover desktop appraisals are not evil; they’re not the ruination of the industry. Thus, they’ll embrace them when it’s appropriate. Others, however, will choose differently.
- As markets slow down from their past torrid rates of increase, we’ll see an increase in the number of filings of state complaints and lawsuits against real estate appraisers.
- As a result of this market slowdown, the number of appraisers will continue to drop despite intense recruitment efforts, especially in rural and remote areas.
- Despite its current shortcomings, which are long established and long debated, the GSE’s current definition of market value, with all of its problems, will continue.
- Changes in technology and appraisal regulation at the federal level will postpone the new GSE appraisal reporting forms until at least 2024.
- So far, appraisers have not organized themselves to fight the bogus bias and discrimination charges against them. Despite the need for such pugilistic organization, however, the status quo won’t change.
- The GSE’s concepts of reliable, reproducible, and accurate will be what state appraisal boards look for in appraisals, not merely that an appraisal be credible. They’ll continue not looking at the value conclusions in the appraisal reports submitted to them because those remain exactly what they are: merely opinions.
- For good or ill, state appraisal coalitions will eclipse national appraisal societies as influencers to the real estate appraisal industry. This is simply because state coalitions are closer, thus more relevant to their members than national societies.
- More and more state appraisal and taxing authorities will recognize Fannie Mae’s move to use the ANSI measurement standards by adopting those standards themselves. While this is likely a positive step, it will result in another level of regulation and standards imposed on appraisers.
- State appraisal boards will continue their migration toward becoming consumer advocacy agencies; thus, their migration is away from their original purpose, the credentialing, educating, and disciplining of real estate appraisers.
- PAREA (Practical Applications of Real Estate Appraisal), training for new appraisers) is not dead, but the entrepreneurial enthusiasm there once was for it has cooled since its implementation is proving so challenging. Thus, while such a program is both a great idea and a necessity in real estate appraisal, the future remains unclear.
- Appraisal waivers will continue to be a practical alternative to appraisals for some borrowers. Their use will continue into the future and likely increase, especially in low loan-to-value borrowing situations.
- Because current appraisal models are antiquated, high-resolution digital photography and the use of artificial intelligence will become more prevalent. This will require appraisers to become more proficient in their analyses of properties and data as well as more persuasive in their writing and communications.
- First mortgage residential interest rates will increase. This will slow the demand for housing. This slowing for the demand for housing will slow the demand for appraisals. In turn, this will affect the demand for new appraisers.
- Without significant changes in the residential real estate appraisal model, residential real estate appraisals will remain a commodity, meaning one appraisal or one appraisal report is no more valuable than another. Therefore, price and turnaround time will remain the primary aims of those who purchase them.
- Given the political agenda of the White House Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity, also known as PAVE, federal regulations on appraisers will increase, though the abuses PAVE addresses are mostly past lending abuses, not current appraisal practice.
- Big data will get only bigger, but the boots-on-the-ground appraisers will not have any more access to those data in the future than they have now. This lack of access to the boots-on-the-ground appraiser is a function of high frontend and high backend costs.
- Given technology, appraisers will divide into two groups: field contractors and desk analysts. Desk analysts will become more important because of improvements in technology and the need for deeper, faster analytics.
- The prominence and importance of AMCs will continue unabated into the future. This is simply because AMCs provide services to lenders that appraisers simply cannot and will not provide. Because the current AMC business model is successful for the AMCs and the lenders, it will also continue.
And finally…
- Residential real estate appraisal will continue to bear the brunt of government scrutiny over past lending abuses. Appraisers may share some culpability, but no appraiser ever drew a red line around a neighborhood and said, “Don’t ever make any loans there.” This scrutiny will continue since appraisers don’t yet have a national advocate.
So those are my 20 predictions for 2022. Will they come true? Who knows? But thank you for reading this. I appreciate it very much.
Editor’s comment: This is a professional transcription of Tim’s recent podcast. Having a transcription is good as it is hard to scroll through a podcast looking for what you want to hear again!!
About the Author
I’m Tim Andersen, The Appraiser’s Advocate. If I can ever help you, please, get in touch with me Tim@TheAppraisersAdvocate.com. It’ll be a pleasure to know you; it’ll be an honor to work with you. Please let me extend to you a Happy New Year, and my best to you and your family. And, well, I’m not going to say, “We’re clear,” because we’re not. I am, however, going to ask, “Are your appraisal fees high enough?”
Tim Andersen, MAI, is a practicing Certified General real property appraiser in Florida. Mr. Andersen has written many articles on techniques for improving appraisal report quality. Additionally, he recently published a popular book on appraisal practice, How to Raise Appraisal Quality and Minimize Risk: The Appraisers Guide to a Defensible Work File.
He is a fee-based Consultant to his fellow Appraisers relative to USPAP, State Appraisal Board Charges and Complaints, and subpoenas. Available for USPAP compliance reviews, critiques of reports, Standards 3/4 reviews for court cases, forensic analyses of reports, as well as all other real estate appraisal matters.
Website: www.theappraisersadvocate.com
Tim, good list and I agree with all. Your list is helpful in understanding where our future is heading, and is a good reminder of those that are not paying attention. Now we need to start trying to solve those points that impact the appraisers, particularly having an advocate for the appraiser. I have spent my career involved in many organizations trying to combat the bumps in the road for the appraiser; it is now 35 years later and I’m not sure how effective those years were. I really believe appraisers are their own worst enemy by not getting involved. I can only hope things change in that regard. Thanks.
Hi, Colleen! Thanks for reading and thanks for caring! We play an interesting game since the rules change at least every two years (if not more often when it comes to the GSEs). Nevertheless, we have had trouble getting out of our own way due to a lack of centralized leadership, as well as appraisers’ tendency to be lone wolves. All we can do is keep working toward a goal of speaking with one voice. Will that ever happen? Yes, but there is no indication of when or just what will cause that unification. Thanks again for reading! My Best to you and all yours!
Tim,
Love your list. The interesting thing is your comment on bias. Of course appraisers are biased. Afterall, we’re human. But does that mean that we are racially biased? There probably are a few, because there are a few in every profession. I’ve never met one (that showed any evidence of it). Consumers need to understand that we don’t have a dog in the fight. High value, low value = same pay. I’m not saying that there aren’t mean spirited appraisers, that might do this out of spite, but an appraiser that does this has nothing to gain and everything to lose!
There is a situation in Marin County where they say an “old white lady” showed such bias. But on my read of their complaint they say other appraisers used comps in a different city and came up with a much higher value. While the “old white lady” used comps from the subject’s city. Their second piece of evidence was that the “old white lady” appraiser noted that Marin City is a unique area, so comps from there should be given the most weight. The borrowers say this is racially coded language. Does that show bias? I don’t know enough about the situation, to comment on it, but at first glance, if those are the facts, I don’t see it.
This is not to say that people of color haven’t been victimized by lenders and others, but many of us “old white appraisers” have been significantly affected by people of color in our lives. Dr. Martin Luther King opened many of our eyes in the 60’s to a world that I had no idea existed and an old jazz musician, Bob Mabane was like a second father to me. His stories of an all-black band travelling the deep south in the 40’s and 50’s were bone chilling. Bob would show up to our house on holidays, grab a plate of food and eat it in the garage. No matter how hard I tried to get him to come in the house, I never had any luck, so we both ate our dinners out in the garage. He never would look me fully in the eyes, I’m sure that was training from his youth. Bob made me feel so much shame for the treatment he received, I knew that I would never participate in such behavior.
Anyway, good list. I bet all or most of it will come true.
It sounds about right and more credible than other predictions that I have read.
Thanks for the feedback!!