Appraisal Reviews – Who and What

August 23, 2024

What’s in This Newsletter (in Order, Scroll Down)

  • Construction Progress Reports: ADUs & Remodels
  • What Is an Appraisal Review and Who Can Be a Reviewer?
  • Billionaire Getty Heir Puts Extraordinary Greek Temple (Temple of Wings) on the Market for $5 Million
  • Redfin Reports Investor Home Purchases Post Biggest Increase in Two Years
  • The Biggest Home in Each State
  • Objectionable Valuations Become Hate Speech, Inflating Home Prices
  • Mortgage applications decreased 10.1 percent from one week earlier

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Humor for Appraisers

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What Is an Appraisal Review and Who Can Be a Reviewer?

Excerpts:

Topics:

  • What is an appraisal review?
  • Fact-checking vs appraisal review
  • Types of appraisal review reports
  • Why are appraisal reviews needed?
  • Who requests a property appraisal review?
  • Who can review a property appraisal?

The client base for appraisal reviews is vast and diverse, encompassing a wide range of sectors and needs.

  • Lenders rely on reviews to ensure the accuracy and reliability of appraisals before making lending decisions.
  • Investors use them to evaluate the value and risk of potential investments.
  • Attorneys order reviews to support legal matters involving property valuation, including disputes and condemnation cases.
  • Insurance companies use them for verifying property values in underwriting and claims.
  • Government agencies may request reviews for regulatory purposes, tax purposes, or right-of-way acquisitions.

To read more, Click Here

My comments: Comprehensive info on reviews. Short and well written. The best I have read, whether you are a reviewer or an appraiser being reviewed. Reviewing is an excellent option for fee appraisers and staff appraisers.

Personally, I quit doing lender reviews many years ago. I preferred to do the appraisal rather than reviewing an appraisal where I have to also appraise the property. Back in the “old days” I reviewed competent local appraisers I knew.

The final blow later for me was a 4 unit property where the appraiser appraised it as a home. There were 4 electrical meters and lots of cars. When I called my client, they just wanted to know if the value was the same as a house or 4 units. I did not reply. It was my last review for lending purposes. I verified with the city that it was a 4 unit property. There was no information that it had been converted to a single family home. Mortgage rates and requirements are lower for SFRs.

On the other side, many appraisers who do lender reviews say they learned a lot about how appraisers appraise.

Read more!!

AVM Accuracy?

Bank AVMs Are As Wildly Inaccurate As A Zestimate – But Will Be Regulated As Legitimate Values

By Jonathan Miller

June 24, 2024

Excerpts:

  •    AVMs are incredibly inaccurate and are being misused in property valuation
  •    AVMs don’t consider the condition of a home
  •    The mortgage industry’s push toward automation has reduced valuation accuracy

AVM or Automated Valuation Models have been incorrectly seen as the human-less way to value property. The technology has been drifting into mortgage lending reliance for more than a decade because it has been marketed as having the ease of “pushing a button.”

The Zestimate product by Zillow introduced the consumer to the concept nearly twenty years ago…

The recent ruling to regulate the credibility of AVMs by the OCC and FDIC essentially legitimized the use of AVMs in lending. The driver behind this final rule was to eliminate potential bias in valuations by replacing appraisers with AVMS. Yet the Urban Institute study Revisiting Automated Valuation Model Disparities in Majority-Black Neighborhoods said: But even with data improvement and artificial intelligence, we still find evidence that the percentage magnitude of AVM error is greater in majority-Black neighborhoods. This finding indicates that we cannot reject the role historic discrimination has played in the evaluation of home values.

AVM software is built by humans who have inherent biases. The void in representation by the appraisal industry over the past decade on the AVM issue, to talk about those 200 feral cats living in the house being valued, has enabled AVMs to be legitimized by the federal government.

During my career, I have observed that valuation accuracy has become weaker as technology has expanded in the mortgage process. The wiz-bang concept that the appraisal of a property can be completed at the push of a button is missing the realities of valuation.

To read more, Click Here

My comments: Worth reading. Miller was involved in AVM history and, as usual, has some very interesting stories plus lots of Zillow comments.

For pro-AVM information from AV Metrics and to see how they test AVM accuracy, Click Here I have been following them for many years.

Miller used to send out a very long post once a week. I often just scrolled fast through most of it to get to the appraisal section, but I missed a lot that was worth reading. Now, he has divided it into daily posts.

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Humor for Appraisers

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NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on Mortgage appraisal reviews, AI and ChatGPT, freddie and fannie mortgage forecast, unusual homes, mortgage origination stats, etc

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