Appraisal News and Business Tips

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4-12-18 Newz//What’s a Comp?, Multiple offers way over list, Rotating House

By on April 12, 2018   /   adjustments, AMCs, Appraisal Foundation, appraisal how to, Appraisal Qualifications Board, Fannie, fees, forecast, lender appraisals, listings, Mortgage applications, real estate market, Strange homes, unusual home, unusual homes, weird homes   /   Leave a comment
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What’s a comp?

 
By George Dell, MAI, SRA

Excerpts: Our education tells us a comp is similar and competitive. So how do we measure “comparability”? If our job entails studying market data to get an answer … might it be important to know exactly how to describe a comp?

So what’s the issue? Why should we care? I am a highly trained expert. I have a license. “Trust me. I know a good comp when I see one.”

My comments: George is writing a longer article than his blog posts for the May issue of the paid Appraisal Today. I often wish his blog posts were longer, but they are designed to be short ;>

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3-29-18 Newz//Last Minute Tax Tips, FHFA-Value of AMCs, Time Capsule Homes

By on March 29, 2018   /   adjustments, AMCs, appraisal business, appraisal how to, appraisal management company, Barry Bates, lender appraisals, real estate market, Strange homes, unusual home, unusual homes, weird homes   /   Leave a comment
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New FHFA report says AMCs are not much different than direct lender appraisals – value added??

From the March 2018 paper (“Are Appraisal Management Companies Value-Adding? – Stylized Facts from AMC and Non-AMC Appraisals”:

“In this paper, we study whether there are any systematic quality differences between appraisals associated and unassociated with appraisal management companies (AMCs). We find that compared to non-AMC appraisals, AMC appraisals on average share a similar degree of overvaluation despite being more prone to contract price confirmation and super overvaluation.
“AMC appraisals also share a similar propensity for mistakes, despite employing a greater number of comparable properties. Our evaluation employs relatively simple statistical comparisons, but the results indicate no clear evidence of any systematic quality differences between appraisals associated and unassociated with AMCs.”

Note: FHFA is the Federal Housing Finance Agency, established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) and is responsible for the effective supervision, regulation, and housing mission oversight of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) and the Federal Home Loan Bank System, which includes the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) and the Office of Finance. Since 2008, FHFA has also served as conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Read appraiser comments here:

Link to the report. Worth reading… or skimming ;>

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3-22-18 Newz//The Way Things Used To Be, Can the Appraisal Profession Be Saved?, Cultural/Religious Effects on Value

By on March 22, 2018   /   adjustments, appraisal how to, future, lender appraisals, mortgage loan volume, real estate market, Strange homes, unusual home, unusual homes, weird homes   /   Leave a comment
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Can the Appraisal Profession be Saved?

By George Dell, MAI, SRA
Excerpt: What does it mean “Can the profession be saved?” Does anyone else care except us?

The second question first. Who might care? Clients who have developed a trust for you and who are comfortable with the traditional ways of doing things. There is a group of us and of them who like doing things as always. It’s comfortable, requires little change, and is a ‘safe’ way of doing things.

But who might not care? We can break these down into two subgroups: 1) those that dislike our getting in the way of their deal; and, 2) those who genuinely want something different, more modern. For now, let’s dismiss the first group, and consider those who do want a better product, a better service.

What do you think? Post your comments!!

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3-15-18 Newz//$2,358 PSF Small Tract House, Water Heaters, Affordable Beach Towns

By on March 15, 2018   /   appraisal how to, appraisal waivers, evaluations, lender appraisals, mortgage loan volume, real estate market, square footage, Strange homes, unusual home, weird homes   /   Leave a comment
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$2,358 per sq.ft. for small home in Sunnyvale CA

Excerpt: This home on Plymouth Drive in Sunnyvale, Calif. recently set the highest price per square foot ever recorded by the Multiple Listing Service. The two bedroom, two bath home – 848 square feet in size – sold in two days for $2 million. It had been listed for $1.45 million. That means it sold for $2,358 per square foot, which is the highest price per square foot in Sunnyvale recorded by MLS Listings which has data going back to Jan. 1, 2000.

My comment: It did have new paint inside and outside plus refinished hardwood floors ;> Check out the fotos for a boring tract house. I got Mine. I am sooo glad I bought my house in 1985 for $145,000, worth about $900,000 now!! Mine is twice the size of this one, but not close to Google or Facebook (30 miles away, but could take the employee Google bus which comes here.)

The World’s Best Affordable Beach Towns

Just For Fun!!

Excerpt:
Here are two, not too far away:
3. Tulum (Mexico) Luxury condos in new developments and single-family houses under $100,000
9. Dominical Beach (Costa Rica)

Check out all of them at:

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2-22-18 Newz//ASB Meeting Live Streaming, McMansions, Risky Appraisal Alternatives

By on February 22, 2018   /   appraisal business, appraisal how to, Appraisal Standards Board, bad appraisers, desktop appraisals, evaluations, hybrid appraisals, mortgage loan volume, real estate market, unusual home, unusual homes, weird homes   /   Leave a comment
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Who Ordered All the McMansions? 10 Cities Where They’re Piled Highest

Excerpt: You know them when you see them.

The imposing, ostentatious structures looming over surprisingly wee plots of land. The crazily mismatched architectural styles. The hipped roofs, gabled roofs, and pyramidal roofs-all on the same house! The bank columns. The front yard Romanesque fountains. The puzzling profusion of window sizes and types. The gigantic, two-story front doors.

Click here for more info and where there are lots of them:

https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/metros-with-most-mcmansions

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2-15-18 Newz//Fannie Appraiser Webinar, Magical Appraiser Wand, Refis Dropping

By on February 15, 2018   /   adjustments, appraisal how to, appraisal waivers, evaluations, Fannie, Mortgage applications, mortgage loan volume, rental market, unusual homes   /   Leave a comment
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The Magical Appraiser Wand

By George Dell
 
Excerpt: Can you just give me some magical software which will calculate my adjustments?

I get asked questions like this often. Can you just show me how to do a graph a client wants? Can you just give me your class stuff so I don’t have to come all that way? So often, the question degrades into something like “Why does the regression software give stupid answers?” I pushed the magic button!

People do not like the answer. You’re paid to do an analysis, not wave a magic wand, or push a magical appraisal button. We have another name for that, it’s called an AVM.   In addition to a point value prediction, AVMs can be tested for reliability. This is called the FSD (Forecast Standard Deviation). The AVM. It gets results. It’s fast. It’s cheap. And it provides a measure of reliability – the FSD.

Why would a client want something slower and more expensive with no measure of reliability? Why hire a pesky appraiser?

Click here for the answer!!

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1-18-18 Newz//Hybrid Appraisal Rejected, Scope Creeping, UsPaP False Assumptions

By on January 18, 2018   /   AMCs, appraisal business, Appraisal fees, appraisal how to, appraisal management company, hybrid appraisals, Mortgage applications, mortgage loan volume, USPAP   /   Leave a comment
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Scope Creep – Head’em Off at the Pass!

By George Dell
Excerpt: Why do we have scope creep?
Possible answers include:
– The reviewer or clerk has to justify their existence;
– There is genuine concern about something;
– The work should’ve been there in the first place;

It’s important to remember that our entire system of appraisal production and review is belief-based.  It must be “worthy of belief.”  We have no objective standards.  Your work must be subjectively “credible” in the mind of the reader.

Read this short, interesting blog post at:

My comment: George Dell writes regularly for Appraisal Today. His articles are much longer than his blog posts, often expanding on a blog post.

UsPaP – A few of the more obvious false assumptions

By Barry Bates

Excerpt from blog post

The appraisal client is always the intended user.

A lovely concept out in the ether somewhere, but hardly ever the case in practice. The client (who engages the appraiser) is a lending technician or AMC drone; the intended user is an underwriter, servicer or portfolio manager. (This assumes the fact that only about 10% of appraisals are ever done for anybody other than a mortgage company.)

To read the full post, click here

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12-14-17 Newz, Underground Digs, AirBnB values, FHA loan limits and PACE

By on December 14, 2017   /   adjustments, appraisal how to, FHA, real estate market, weird properties   /   Leave a comment
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Digging into our drive to tunnel, bore, and head underground.
Just For Fun!!
Excerpt: The deepest tunnelers among animals, crocodiles that can burrow 39 feet down, cannot compete with us at all. Humans have traveled, in the deepest mine in the world, almost 2.5 miles underground (to say nothing of our boreholes, which go nearly three times deeper). The longest and deepest traffic tunnel in the world, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, makes it possible to cross the Alps in 40 minutes or less. The world’s major cities are criss-crossed by tunnels carrying water, sewage, wires, and people. Montreal has an entire subterranean city for its residents to navigate in the cold winter.

My comment: Fascinating!! I have not appraised any properties with tunnels, but I have seen many (and traveled through some) over the years. Railroad and mass transit trains, abandoned tunnels to nowhere, underground parts of cities (mostly abandoned), old mining tunnels, etc. I have seen (and appraised) lots of basements though, some way below ground ;>

How much is Airbnb driving up home prices and rents

Excerpt: The researchers looked at rents and home prices in the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. between 2012 and 2016. They found that a 10% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.39% increase in rents and a 0.64% increase in house prices.

“That may sound minuscule, but between 2012 and 2016, rents rose by about 2.2% annually [on average in the 100 areas], so a 0.39% increase in that context isn’t very small at all,” says Dr. Edward Kung, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California Los Angeles and one of the study’s authors. The same is true for home prices, which rose by an average of about 4.8% annually in the 100 areas, he adds.

My comment:

Seems like Airbnb rentals are all over, such as my small city, not just in popular vacation spots. From an appraisal point of view, Airbnb rentals are tricky. More cities are regulating them. A lot more hassle than renting out an ADU for a year, for example. Tax issues for owners. To me, seems like it is business value rather than real estate value. Very confusing!!

Appraiserville from Jonathan Miller’s Housing Notes

Check out the topics below
– The Appraisal Industry Needs Better PR
No one knows what we do.
No one appreciates what we do.
– More on Tristar Bank in TN (you know, the one that shouldn’t be in the mortgage business)
– Loan origination graph 2006 to 2017
– The Next Appraisal Bombshell: Economic Growth Regulatory Reduction and Consumer Protection Act

Scroll down the page to Appraiserville, and maybe make a few stops along the way ;>

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11-16-17 Newz//:Value Of Additional Bedrooms, 13 Animal-Shaped Homes, Timber Towers

By on November 16, 2017   /   adjustments, appraisal business, appraisal how to, bad appraisers, Mortgage applications, mortgage loan volume, statistics, unusual home, weird homes, weird properties   /   Leave a comment
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Architectural menagerie

13 animal-shaped buildings

Just For Fun!!
Excerpt: Novelty architecture can take on many fantastical forms – think municipal water towers done up like peaches and soft serve-shaped ice cream stands – but animal-shaped buildings are in a league of their own.

Often built as roadside attractions meant to lure motorists off the highway, these completely functional structures serve a greater purpose than just kitschy ornamentation. Some are truly mimetic – that is, the building is representative of its original purpose be it a poultry shop, seafood restaurant or woolen clothing boutique. Others are more symbolic, which is probably a good thing.

Here are a few:
– Big Sheep Wool Gallery – New Zealand
– Turtle Building – Niagara Falls
– Crocodile Hotel – Australia

Good fotos and write-ups at:

Why Timber Towers Are On the Rise in France

Excerpt: Spurred by concerns over climate change and the negative impacts of concrete manufacturing, architects and developers in France are increasingly turning to wood for their office towers and apartment complexes.

Concrete was praised through much of the 20th century for its flexibility, functionality, and relative affordability. In France, the material ushered in an era of bold modernist architecture including housing by Auguste Perret and Le Corbusier. Today, however, wood is lauded for its smaller environmental footprint and the speed with which buildings can be assembled.

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11-2-17 Newz .Crazy Appraiser Stories, AirBnB and Value, 31 abandoned places

By on November 2, 2017   /   adjustments, appraisal business, appraisal how to, Mortgage applications, Strange homes, weird homes, weird properties   /   Leave a comment
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Crazy Appraiser Stories

Excerpt: I had a house where the 1st floor den was connected to the basement via spiral staircase. Wife did not want the appraiser to go down the spiral steps and said she would “show” room from the basement. Telephone rang, appraiser proceeded to the basement, opened the door and the room was full of whips, chains, and other erotica ala “50 Shades of Grey.” I said we would just call it a rec. room and shoot from the best angle to disguise the “toys”.
-Sharon Finnerty Cremen

My comment: I have heard this story a few times but never encountered it… Lots of other weirdness though, such as seeing the sky through a big hole in the ceiling, falling down backwards into a partially covered pond and destroying my camera, etc. Check out the Cat Photo and make up your own Cat Comments!! Here is mine: Those appraisers need to take more naps and Get A Life. I guess they do have a sense of humor occasionally though ;>

Check out the other stories and add your own to  the 26+ comments at:

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