Newz: Nobody is Ready for UAD 3.6,
Time to Take Out the AMC Junk
August 28, 2026
What’s in This Newsletter (In Order, Scroll Down)
- LIA AD: Think carefully before signing a Records Affidavit
- Nobody is Ready for UAD 3.6 by Isaac Peck, Publisher WorkingRE
- The famed rotating round house at 4 Harkle Road in Novato is for sale for the first time
- It’s Time to Take Out the Junk: AMC Practices Exposed by Logan Dorman
- MY AD: How to reduce stress to be more productive in business and a happier life
- Becoming an Appraiser: Courage to Grow Beyond Training by Timothy Andersen, MAI
- UAD 3.6 UPDATE – Comp Photos, Any Future for Residential Appraisers?
- MBA STATS: Mortgage applications decreased 1.0 percent from one week earlier
Nobody is Ready for UAD 3.6
by Isaac Peck, Publisher WorkingRE
I just got back from Valuation Expo, the nation’s largest and most dynamic conference for real estate appraisers and valuation industry stakeholders. More than 800 people made it to Las Vegas this year.
Appraisers, chief appraisers at appraisal management companies (AMCs), lenders, regulators, software developers, service providers, insurance professionals and more convened to talk about the latest technology and explore where the profession is headed.
The mood was elevated and positive—many attendees were genuinely invigorated and excited about the future. And yet, despite all the positivity, another reality was plainly clear from the conversations: Nobody is ready for UAD 3.6.
While many of the leading software providers received initial approval from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) in late 2025 and early 2026, word on the ground is that there are still plenty of bugs to work out.
AMC executives privately shared that they have staff simultaneously testing all the GSE-approved appraisal reporting software so they can troubleshoot and support appraisers when they inevitably run into bugs and errors trying to turn in an assignment. Some of those bugs are being run back to the software companies in real time, as appraisers, AMCs, lenders and software providers work together to find a solution.
In other words, while the GSEs tested the main appraisal report software providers on several different types of assignments, there are so many nuances, data fields and report settings that bugs are surfacing rapidly now that appraisers are finally doing live assignments.
In addition to the software challenges, part of the problem is that most lenders haven’t begun ordering UAD 3.6 reports at all.
I spoke with several regional AMCs. Each had completed just two UAD 3.6 assignments—and in each case, one of the two was a test run the AMC had ordered itself.
If one of the largest mortgage lenders in the country has only done six UAD assignments, how many appraisers have actually completed a UAD 3.6 assignment? The answer is very, very few.
An appraisal software executive shared with me privately that he fears appraisers may be (wrongly) blamed if the rollout goes poorly and the market is disrupted. It would be easy to sell a narrative that “appraisers weren’t ready,” or that appraisers can’t handle the new report format. Such a view clearly misses the point. After all, appraisers don’t control the development of the software, nor do they control when UAD 3.6 reports start getting ordered, to Reuter’s point.
Will we see an avalanche of UAD 3.6 orders in September and October, and will the transition happen smoothly by mid-October? It seems unlikely.
Many thanks to Isaac Peck for “in person” realistic reporting on the Most Popular Topic in appraising – Future of UAD 3.6 and GSEs.
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Definitely worth reading the full article!!! I was unable to attend this conference but have attended many webinars and two “boot camps” via zoom since early 2025. Plus I have written about the problems.
This article was no surprise to me. It puts all the pieces together and has quotes from knowledgeable people, plus what appraisers said.The famed
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Rotating Round House at 4 Harkle Road in Novato CA is for sale for the first time, bundled with six other Marin County homes for $3.3 million.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
Excerpts: The town of about 52,000 has a wealth of significant buildings visible to anyone driving on Highway 101. Novato is home to the Buck Institute, one of I. M. Pei’s only California commissions, the iconic Birkenstock building and the rotating Harkleroad round house. Now, for the first time, the latter is up for sale.
The round house, the “potato chip house” — a hyperbolic paraboloid structure — and five other properties are all listed together, asking $3.3 million. “It’s really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of local history,” said listing agent Angelo Baglieri
To read more, Click Here
My comments: many thanks to Joe Lynch for this fascinating listing! He used to drive by it a lot.
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It’s Time to Take Out the Junk: AMC Practices Exposed
by Logan Dorman, Certified Residential Appraiser
Excerpts: Appraisers have spent years carrying the weight of broken AMC practices, and this article pulls every one of those practices into the sunlight so the profession can finally take out the junk.
“Evil AMCs thrive not only through active malice, but also through the silence and inaction of those appraisers who could intervene.” — Edmund Burke… if he had been an appraiser
It’s a conversation we’ve all had before:
“I’ve already got all my information entered. I’m used to the system. I don’t want to learn a new process. I guess I’ll just keep paying the extra couple of dollars every month so I don’t have to deal with it.”
This applies to technology, finances, personal property – or what it usually gets called eventually: junk.
The Gatekeeper Becomes the Industry
The problem is not the existence of appraisal management companies.
The problem is an industry structure that allows large AMCs – particularly those employing or affiliating with their own appraisers – to influence assignment distribution, appraiser compensation, turnaround expectations, review standards, and production volume while simultaneously presenting themselves as neutral protectors of appraiser independence.
The appearance of a conflict should be obvious.
An AMC may decide which independent appraiser receives an assignment, determine the offered fee, impose the deadline, control the revision process, evaluate the appraiser’s performance, and decide whether that appraiser receives future work. If that same company also benefits economically from work completed by its own staff or affiliated appraisers, legitimate questions arise:
How are assignments allocated?
Are independent appraisers competing on equal terms?
Does the lowest fee or fastest turnaround receive priority over competency?
Can an appraiser disagree with a reviewer without risking future assignments?
Is “quality control” being used to improve reports, or to pressure appraisers into satisfying production expectations?
How much of the amount charged to the consumer reaches the person who actually performs and signs the appraisal?
Who benefits when the AMC’s retained fee exceeds the appraiser’s fee?
Those are not attacks on appraiser independence, they’re legitimate questions that need to be asked.
The Courts Are Beginning to Hear Some of Those Questions
Several recently filed lawsuits have placed AMC compensation, fee disclosures, and employment practices under public scrutiny.
AMC’s cannot survive without Appraisers. Appraisers can survive without AMC’s. It’s time to remind people of this fact, and it’s time to get rid of the junk.
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Interesting article. Summary of the past and a look at the future…
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How to reduce stress to be more productive in business and a happier life
In the April, 2026 issue of Appraisal Today
Excerpts: Editor’s notes: This article discusses the many sources of short term stress in an appraisal business and how to handle them.
About a year ago, I started learning Mindfulness. It is the best way to get rid of stress symptoms immediately, while you decide how
to reduce the stress. It has changed my life. Using a 13 minute guided meditation, my stress is gone.
In this article, I provide ways to reduce stress. A few examples: throwing a
smurf ball at a picture of an AMC logo (or a picture of what you imagine the
reviewer or underwriter looks like), walking outside for 10-15 minutes, or doing tai chi or yoga. Pick those that appeal to you. They all work.
What is stress?
Stress is the body’s natural, automatic reaction to challenges, changes, or
threats, triggering a “fight-or-flight” response that releases hormones like
adrenaline and cortisol.
While short-term stress can increase alertness and energy to meet
deadlines or avoid danger, long-term (chronic) stress can lead to serious
physical and mental health issues.
For appraisers stress is usually short term. For example an AMC request wasting your time. Also stressful is traffic causing you to be late for an appraisal inspection or computer problems.
Stress, anxiety and depression
Stress, anxiety, and depression are interrelated mental health conditions.
While stress is a reaction to threats, anxiety involves persistent fear or worry,
and depression causes low mood and lack of interest. To stop the anxiety and depression I use Mindfulness, mostly guided meditation.
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Becoming an Appraiser: Courage to Grow Beyond Training
by Timothy Andersen, MAI, The Appraiser’s Advocate
Abstract
Completing appraisal training marks not an end but merely a beginning. This essay argues that professional maturity emerges through judgment under uncertainty, not credentials alone. Appraisers must balance decisive action with humility, accept imperfect knowledge, and learn from feedback. Ongoing reflection transforms experience into growth and shapes identity over time. True practice lives between hesitation and overconfidence, embracing risk, ethical coherence, and continual learning as the core of becoming a reflective, responsible appraiser in complex markets today.
Finishing appraisal training feels like arriving at a destination. You take the classes. You pass the courses. You log the hours. You earn the credential. On paper, you are now an appraiser. But after that moment something quietly unsettling happens. You discover that the certificate you worked so hard to earn did not magically transform you into a finished professional. It opened a door. You stepped through it, and behind that door stretched a landscape far larger and more intimidating/enlightening than the classroom ever suggested. This discovery is not a failure of training. It is the beginning of becoming. You are not yet an appraiser. You now have the opportunity to become one. Will you seize it?
Every serious profession shares a hidden truth. Formal education provides tools and rules, but it does not and cannot deliver complete certainty about how to use those tools and rules in each distinct situation. Real properties refuse to behave like textbook examples. Markets shift. Data conflict. Clients ask questions that do not fit snugly inside standardized forms. The practicing appraiser must interpret, judge, and decide under conditions that never become perfectly clear, i.e., that those conditions are always uncertain. That condition is not a flaw in the profession. It is its living core.
To read more, Click Here
My comments: What was your appraisal career like after becoming licensed? How can you help other new appraisers?
I was lucky and was trained at an assessor’s office with other appraisers to ask. At that time, most appraisers were trained at lenders, who had supervisors to help them. When I started my business in 1986, I attended monthly meetings from AIREA and SREA. Experienced appraisers helped me.
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UAD 3.6 UPDATE – Comp Photos, Any Future for Residential Appraisers?
See the article at the top of this newsletter for the latest news from Val Expo!
GSEs don’t require that comp photos be taken.
MLS,or other sources, are OK. I never liked having to retake a recent comp photo I already had from a previous appraisal. Instead I will be driving by some comps just to check it, especially if I suspected any location problems.
Is there any future for residential
lender appraisers?
Appraisers will always be needed for the “tough ones”. Or, the data
from older appraisals is old or appears inaccurate.
Computers can easily do recent conforming tract homes. But, what if
in the middle of the tract is the old home (occupied by the seller) from
before the new homes were built.
Or,if you work in rural areas, data is very limited and you need to contact
people for information. GSEs lend on mixed use. Not much competition for
these appraisals.
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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, Click Here.
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 go to www.appraisaltoday.com/order Or call 510-865-8041, MTW, 7 AM to noon, Pacific time.
My comments: Rates are going up and down. We are all waiting for rates to drop lower in 2027.
Mortgage applications decreased 1.0 percent from one week earlier
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 26, 2026) — Mortgage applications decreased 1.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 21, 2026.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 2 percent from the previous week and was 17 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 0.3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 5 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
“Mortgage rates reached their highest level in three weeks, with the 30-year fixed rate up slightly to 6.78 percent. Mortgage rates have increased around 20 basis points over the past two months, which has dampened refinancing activity,” said Joel Kan, CMB, MBA’s Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. “Refinance applications decreased, particularly for FHA and VA loans, and the average loan size for refinances was at its lowest since June 2025.”
Added Kan, “Similarly, purchase activity was down over the week, driven by a 7 percent decrease in FHA applications. The purchase market has also slowed these past two months, with applications now 5 percent behind last year’s pace.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 42.0 percent of total applications from 41.9 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 7.9 percent of total applications.
The FHA share of total applications decreased to 16.2 percent from 17.1 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications increased to 12.8 percent from 12.6 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.5 percent from the week prior.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($832,750 or less) increased to 6.78 percent from 6.77 percent, with points increasing to 0.66 from 0.65 (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 $832,750) increased to 6.73 percent from 6.71 percent, with points increasing to 0.50 from 0.48 (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 6.46 percent from 6.45 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.82 (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 6.10 percent from 6.08 percent, with points increasing to 0.90 from 0.82 (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 5.98 percent from 5.94 percent, with points increasing to 0.88 from 0.87 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The survey covers U.S. closed-end residential mortgage applications originated through retail and consumer direct channels. The survey has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks, thrifts, and credit unions. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.
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Ann O’Rourke, MAI, SRA, MBA
Appraiser and Publisher Appraisal Today
1826 Clement Ave. Suite 203 Alameda, CA 94501
Phone: 510-865-8041
Email: ann@appraisaltoday.com
Online: www.appraisaltoday.com
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