What type of heater is needed for a loan?March 22, 2018 By Ryan Lundquist
Excerpt: A guy wants to sell, but his central system is broken, so he has space heaters in each room. Does that work? Is it going to fly for a loan? What’s an appraiser going to be looking for when it comes to a heat source? Let’s consider some thoughts from Fannie Mae, HUD, local code, and different lenders.
Very well written, comprehensive and worth reading at:
My comment: I appraise a lot of Victorians, built when they were heated by fireplaces. Many added a floor heater on the first floor with no other heating source, including no heating on the second floor. The easiest way is to put baseboard electric heaters in the bedrooms, assuming electrical has been upgraded. I regularly get asked by local real estate agents about lender requirements. Now I know what to tell them!
Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe For Covid Updates, go to my Covid Science blog at covidscienceblog.com Click here to subscribe to our FREE weekly appraiser email newsletter and get the latest appraisal news!! To read more of this long blog post with many topics, click Read More Below!! NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on , weird decor, hidden factors that affect value, mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc. Read more!! → |
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!!
Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe For Covid Updates, go to my Covid Science blog at covidscienceblog.com Click here to subscribe to our FREE weekly appraiser email newsletter and get the latest appraisal news!! To read more of this long blog post with many topics, click Read More Below!! NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on floating homes, the past, colonial homes, mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc. ========================================== |
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Things to know about water heaters during real estate transactionsBy Ryan Lundquist
Excerpt: Let’s have a quick conversation about water heaters. During a real estate transaction does the water heater need to be raised or not? What are lenders asking appraisers to look for? Does it matter if it’s gas or electric, or if it’s located in the garage or house? Here’s some things to know. Anything to add?
Worth reading… especially if you have to check them for FHA, etc. Plus, read the comments.
Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe For Covid Updates, go to my Covid Science blog at covidscienceblog.com Click here to subscribe to our FREE weekly appraiser email newsletter and get the latest appraisal news!! To read more of this long blog post with many topics, click Read More Below!! NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on beach towns, $2,358 PSF home, appraisal waivers, mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc. |
Can you use comps from a different neighborhood?By Ryan Lundquist
Excerpt: BIG CAUTION: If one area has smaller homes, heavy fixers, not enough data, more foreclosures, or more remodeled properties, we might draw the wrong conclusions when looking at stats if we’re not careful. In other words, we need to know how to think through the numbers rather than taking them at face value.
Good analysis and graphs from Sacramento area, but applies to many other locations. Worth reading.
My comments: Going to another neighborhood is tricky if a location adjustment is required. However, I do it occasionally. If the two neighborhoods are similar, it is easy. FYI, I attended a Fannie webinar last week that showed how CU displays comps in neighborhoods, based on census tract blocks, showing how median prices vary. I will be writing about how underwriters use CU in next month’s paid Appraisal Today newsletter.
Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe For Covid Updates, go to my Covid Science blog at covidscienceblog.com Click here to subscribe to our FREE weekly appraiser email newsletter and get the latest appraisal news!! To read more of this long blog post with many topics, click Read More Below!! NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on What is an Island, mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc. |
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I Am Not “JUST” a Residential AppraiserBy Rachel Massey, SRA
Excerpt: There is no doubt that moving to obtaining a certified general appraisal license opens doors to varied and interesting work. If it is in one’s capacity to obtain this level, it is a great idea. That said, the idea of being “just” a residential appraiser has got to stop.
A good professional residential appraiser who studies the market, knows how to analyze and solve a problem, and can communicate effectively and succinctly, is a very valuable appraiser at that!
Worth reading, plus read the comments and post your opinion.
My comment: Rachel wrote a much longer, very interesting article for the paid Appraisal Today March issue: “What being designated means to me”
When I started appraising in the late 70s, residential was somehow considered “inferior”. I guess it has been going on for a very long time. I have always thought that residential appraisers are experts in one type of property: 1-4 units. If you are testifying in court on a single family home and the opposing attorney’s appraiser is an MAI who appraises a few times a year, you will blow them away!!
Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe For Covid Updates, go to my Covid Science blog at covidscienceblog.com Click here to subscribe to our FREE weekly appraiser email newsletter and get the latest appraisal news!! To read more of this long blog post with many topics, click Read More Below!! NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on turret living, price fixing, seasonal price changes, mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc. =======================================
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The Magical Appraiser WandBy 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!!
10-20 UPDATE: For lots of Covid analysis and news, go to my new covidscienceblog.com Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe COVID Risk When Appraising Apartments and Commercial Properties Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe Covid Airborne Transmission Inside Homes How to reduce Covid airborne transmission risk Physical distancing – 3 ft. vs. 6 ft. vs. 13 ft. vs. ??? – new research
ADD LINKS FOR HUMOR AND BIZ TIPS Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe For Covid Updates, go to my Covid Science blog at covidscienceblog.com Click here to subscribe to our FREE weekly appraiser email newsletter and get the latest appraisal news!! To read more of this long blog post with many topics, click Read More Below!! NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on , mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc.
Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe For Covid Updates, go to my Covid Science blog at covidscienceblog.com Click here to subscribe to our FREE weekly appraiser email newsletter and get the latest appraisal news!! To read more of this long blog post with many topics, click Read More Below!! NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on waivers, air bnb , mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc. |
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Most Common Errors and Requests For Appraisal RevisionsExcerpt: Over the years, as the Chief Appraiser for a national Appraisal Management Company (AMC), my team has seen many unique appraisal assignments and experienced many interesting requests for revisions. Of course, we’ve seen our fair share of requests to provide an additional supporting comp or two, or to address how the subject’s opinion of value that is over/under the indicated Predominant Value of the Neighborhood impacts value, too.
While we see those common requests for revision regularly, the most common requests for revision, are of the much simpler or generic variety. Additionally, those requests seem to be easily avoidable with just a little more patience by the client in the ordering process and from the Appraiser in their own report production and QC processes. Here is a list of our “Top 5” revision request items that we see on a regular basis:
1. Correct the spelling of the borrower and/or seller’s name.
Note: This error revision runs at a 50:50 pace. Half the time the error was initiated on the customer’s part when they placed the order while the other half is an Appraiser input error.
Read 4 more common requests plus almost 30 comments (somewhat controversial article) at:
My comment: I have to carefully check names on every one of my non-lender appraisals. For unknown reason I have typos on names. People don’t like it when their names are misspelled ;>
Lender and AMC revision requests(Opens in a new browser tab) Covid-19 Residential Appraisers Tips on Staying Safe For Covid Updates, go to my Covid Science blog at covidscienceblog.com Click here to subscribe to our FREE weekly appraiser email newsletter and get the latest appraisal news!! To read more of this long blog post with many topics, click Read More Below!! NOTE: Please scroll down to read the other topics in this long blog post on scope creep, USPAP, hybrids, appraiser independence, mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc. Read more!! → |
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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 ;> |
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How much is Airbnb driving up home prices and rentsExcerpt: 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!!
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Appraiserville from Jonathan Miller’s Housing NotesCheck 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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China’s 50-Lane Traffic Jam Is Every Commuter’s Worst NightmareWhat happens when a checkpoint merges 50 lanes down to 20.
Excerpts: Thousands of motorists found themselves stranded on Tuesday in what looks from above like a 50-lane parking lot on the G4 Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, one of the country’s busiest roads. Some are dubbing the traffic jam a “carpocalypse,” while others are calling it “carmageddon.”:
China is no stranger to these ridiculous traffic jams, especially on national highways. In 2010, gridlock spanning more than 74 miles on the stretch between the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Beijing left drivers with nowhere to go for a staggering 12 days. That time blame fell on everything from road construction to broken down cars and fender-benders.
My comment: Check out the photos. Wow! One of my nightmares is getting stuck in a big traffic jam, but I never thought about one as bad as this…
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A Mysterious Device RevealedExcerpt: On Monday, I distributed a photo (see below), which was taken by a western US appraiser at the subject property, and asked if anyone could accurately describe what this device is:
The property owner was not at the property when the appraiser was there, and the appraiser was frankly stumped as to what this ‘thing’ is.
By late afternoon Monday, the appraiser was able to talk with the property owner, and was told about this contraption. Meanwhile, dozens of appraisers wrote back with suggestions or positive “it’s a” statements.
My comment: There was a fun email thread on this topic. To sign up for Dave Towne’s emails, send an email to dtowne@fidalgo.net He has been writing a lot recently about hybrid appraisals (non-appraiser does the site inspection). Very controversial. I am working on an article for this topic in the paid Appraisal Today newsletter.
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Crazy Appraiser StoriesExcerpt: 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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