Newz: Appraiser Obsolescence, ASB – Use of Technology in an Appraisal or Review
April 10, 2026
What’s in This Newsletter (In Order, Scroll Down)
- LIA AD: Subpoena Threat Over a 10-Year-Old Appraisal
- Flags Over Facts: The Road to Obsolescence By Desiree Mehbod
- Mayfield Ranch: The $4.5 Million Texas Estate on 100 Acres That Looks Like It’s Been Standing for Centuries
- April Fools Day and Other Important Dates in Appraisal History
- MY AD: How to Cut Business Expenses
- March 2026 Housing Market Updates for Appraisers By Kevin Hecht
- ASB Proposed New Advisory Opinion 41, Use of Technology in an Appraisal or Appraisal Review Assignment
- MBA: Mortgage applications decreased 0.8 percent from one week earlier
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Flags Over Facts: The Road to Obsolescence
By Desiree Mehbod
Excerpts: For years, appraisers have been warning that the mortgage industry was slowly engineering us out of the process. We were told we were paranoid. Resistant to change. Stuck in the past. Then the newest Mortgage Credit Executive Order arrived, and the appraisal section opened with a single line that confirmed everything we’ve been saying: expand AVMs, desktops, hybrids, and AI. That’s the priority. Everything else in that section is just polite filler wrapped around a strategy to shrink the role of the human appraiser until we’re little more than a signature at the bottom of a dataset.
And that strategy becomes even clearer when you look at what’s happening behind the scenes. While UAD 3.6 is not fully active yet, the structure being built around it makes the intention impossible to miss. The new system demands an avalanche of hyper‑granular data that has nothing to do with how appraisers actually determine value. Room‑by‑room material ratings, finish classifications, fixture‑level detail, micro‑condition scoring. It’s a level of data extraction designed for machines, not humans.
No buyer cares whether the guest bath faucet is “mid‑grade chrome” or “builder‑grade brushed nickel,” but the new dataset does. Not because it improves valuation, but because it feeds the models. UAD 3.6 turns every full appraisal into a data‑mining operation, with the appraiser acting as the human data‑collection device for a system that wants our expertise now so it can automate it later.
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My comments: Worth reading. Discusses VA, Road to Housing Act and other topics. Knowledgeable author – the founder of Appraisers Blogs.
