Appraisal Clipboards and UAD 3.6

By on September 19, 2025   /   adjustments, appraisal business, appraisal how to, New URAR, UAD 3.6   /   Leave a comment
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Newz: Concessions, Clipboards in Appraisals?

September 19, 2025

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

    • LIA AD: Protecting My Appraisal Report
    • Robots in Surgery, Clipboards in Appraisals: A Tale of Two Professions
    • Custom Barndominium ‘Like No Other’ With Hobby Farm and Room for Helipad Hits the Market for $12.5 Million
    • Concessions: Sellers are struggling to listen to the market by Ryan Lundquist
    • Do Nearby Home Sales Affect My Home’s Value? By Tom Horn
    • The Short-Term Rental Dilemma by JoAnn Apostol

    • Mortgage applications increased 29.7 percent from  one week earlier

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Dear Clipboard and Measuring Wheel – A Walk Down Memory Lane

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Robots in Surgery, Clipboards in Appraisals:
A Tale of Two Professions

By Tony Pistilli

September 15, 2025

Excerpts: In the distant past, a doctor could build a career practicing medicine in much the same way for decades. But today, with the rapid pace of medical advancement, it means doctors who refuse to adopt new technologies either retire early, find their practices so limited that they cannot effectively compete or fade away into irrelevance.

The technological toolbox available to doctors today is full and growing. Consider just a few of these examples.

Robots allow doctors to perform minimally invasive procedures with greater precision, fewer complications, and faster recovery times. Surgeons control the robot’s every movement, combining human judgment with precision accuracy.

Doctors vs. Real Estate Appraisers

Of course there had to be a correlation to appraisers!  In summary, doctors have largely embraced technology, reshaping their profession and improving outcomes for millions of people around the world.

Contrast that with real estate appraisers.

While doctors are saving lives with robotic tools, appraisers are often still clinging to their clipboards, tape measures and manual data entry. While physicians have adopted telemedicine to expand their reach, many appraisers have resisted bifurcation that could streamline valuation processes and bring more work and ultimately more revenue.

To read more, Click Here

My comments: Interesting analysis. A few years ago, I had major surgery where robotics were used. I was worried, but when I research robotics I found out that they can work very well. And that the robots were not doing the surgery! My surgeon determined what the robots did by the surgeon manipulating the surgical instruments in an external device to do the surgery.

UAD 3.6 is coming. Using a tablet app in the field to collect data can really help. What if you don’t want to use an app and want to use a clipboard? I spoke with a software vendor recently who will have paper check lists of what data and photos are needed when using a clipboard.

Read more!! →

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Paired Sales Analysis

By on September 12, 2025   /   adjustments, appraisal, appraisal business, appraisal forms, appraisal how to, UAD 3.6   /   Leave a comment
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Newz: Paired Sales Analysis, The Last Appraiser,
24 Hour Turn Times?

September 12, 2025

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

  • LIA AD: Why do Claims get Settled?
  • Paired Sales Analysis: Tips and Tools for Appraisers
  • Home on rare stretch of California’s Lost Coast hits market for $11M in Ferndale, CA Some Assembly Required
  • Combining Tools for Appraisals By Brent Bowen
  • The 24-Hour Appraisal Diet: Slim on Time, Light on Credibility
  • A Review of MEIN COMP: The Last Appraiser by Desiree Mehbod
  • Mortgage applications decreased 1.2 percent from one week earlier

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Tools To Support Appraisal Adjustments

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Paired Sales Analysis: Tips and Tools for Appraisers

By Kevin Hecht

Excerpts: As a professional real estate appraiser, you know that paired sales analysis is a reliable and popular method for determining the value of specific property features and providing market-based evidence to support appraisal adjustments.

Though not without challenges, paired sales analysis is a valuable technique to have in your appraisal toolkit. Mastering this method will help you develop more accurate, credible, and defensible appraisals.

Uses

Primarily used in the sales comparison approach, paired sales analysis is particularly useful for estimating the value of unique property attributes such as:

  • Location advantages (corner lots, cul-de-sac positions, or waterfront access)
  • Scenic views or privacy features
  • Property upgrades (pools, finished basements, luxury kitchens)

Importance

For property appraisers, paired sales analysis is an essential tool because it helps ensure that appraisal adjustments are supported by quantitative data. Rather than relying on cost estimates or subjective opinions, you can use actual sales data to support your value conclusions. This evidence strengthens your appraisal’s defensibility and helps you comply with USPAP.

Additional Topics

  • Step-by-Step Methodology of a Paired Sales Analysis
  • Paired Sales Analysis Tips and Best Practices

My comments: Paired sales has been used for decades by appraisers. Now, statistical analysis including graphs is available plus software that can determine adjustments. In the 8/25 issue of this newsletter, an appraiser survey of appraisal adjustments said that paired sales was the number one adjustment method used by appraisers.

I use paired sales for unusual adjustments, such as discussed above. For example, for many years I lived in waterfront homes, which is not unusual in my city. One of my homes was in a small development of similar homes built in the 1940s. Matched paired sales was very easy. Another non tract home built in the 1940s did not have similar homes nearby and paired sales did not work very well there.

To read more, Click Here

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Appraisal Adjustments

By on August 29, 2025   /   adjustments, appraisal how to, FHA, liability, New URAR, UAD, UAD 3.6, USPAP   /   Leave a comment
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Newz: Appraisal Adjustments, How Freddie and Fannie Inflated Home Prices, FHA to Adopt UAD 3.6

August 29, 2025

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

  • LIA AD Navigating Value Revisions in Appraisals
  • Appraisal Adjustments: Types, Methods, and Cheat Sheet Appraisal By Kevin Hecht
  • Inside Artificial Heart Inventor’s $4.8 Million Midcentury Modern Salt Lake City Utah Home
  • Inflated Prices, Taxed to Death, by Jeremy Bagott
  • Can the direction a home faces affect its value? By Ryan Lundquist
  • The Competence to Perform an Assignment, by Timothy C. Andersen, MAI
  • FHA to adopt UAD 3.6
  • MBA: Mortgage applications decreased 0.5 percent from one week earlier

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Time Adjustment Changes for Appraisers

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Appraisal Adjustments: Types, Methods, and Cheat Sheet Appraisal By Kevin Hecht

Excerpts:

Types of Appraisal Adjustments

Appraisal adjustments can take several forms, depending on the property characteristics being compared. Each type of adjustment addresses a different element that may influence value. Below are descriptions of common adjustment categories and their uses, followed by a “cheat sheet” chart with examples.

  • Qualitative Adjustments
  • Quantitative Adjustments
  • Transactional Adjustments
  • Market Conditions Adjustments
  • Property Adjustments
  • Locational Adjustments

Common Methods for Making Appraisal Adjustments

A long list, from matched paired sales to Cost Analysis

Appraiser Survey: What’s Your Go-To Method for Adjustments?

Paired sales/matched pair analysis (Most popular answer!)

“I typically cover rural areas where sales are scarce and there is not enough data for meaningful statistical analysis to be performed. Due to this, paired sales analysis is the most reasonable and defensible analysis position available.”

“I use linear regression to understand market changes and to calculate any necessary market change adjustments.”

“Depends on what item is being adjusted. If it is site or GLA, it is usually a percentage of the per acre or per square foot sales price. Other items are usually paired sales analysis or consideration for depreciated cost.”

To read more, Click Here

My comments: Comprehensive lists and interesting appraiser comments. I quit doing grid dollar adjustments many years ago. A person from our state regulator, speaking at a local appraisal meeting, said they would require support for all adjustments. I started by doing Plus and Minus grid adjustments and then went to “total property comparison” with a value. I do a qualitative analysis comparing the comps.

The only supported dollar adjustments I make are for market conditions and high dollar features such as a fantastic view of the Golden Gate Bridge from very high up a hill.

Inside Artificial Heart Inventor’s $4.8 Million Midcentury Modern Salt Lake City Utah Home

Excerpts: 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 5,447 sq.ft., 0.55 acre lot, built in 1957

The mastermind behind the one-of-a-kind estate was none other than Swiss architect Eduard Dreier, who brought Bauhaus principles to the modernist movements of Utah and Nevada.

Lovingly restored and awarded the Utah Heritage Award for Restoration and Renovation, this 5, 447 sq ft architectural gem blends timeless Dreier elements-exposed steel beams, walls of glass and cantilevered roof line, granite rock walls-with warm modern luxury. The 1,110 sq ft glass-and-steel attached guest house, designed by Dreier protge Brent Groesbeck in 2016, floats above the main home, expanding living where entertaining is elevated to an art form.

To read more, Click Here

To see the listing with 43 photos and a video tour, Click Here

Read more!! →

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