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!! → |
By Barry Bates
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.)
Pretending that they’re the same person (based on the legal concept of a corporation as a person, which facilitates all kinds of evil) allows the left hand, which is handing out cash, to avoid confronting the fact that the right hand is removing money from the borrower’s savings account.
USPAP is intentionally not specific
Finally, the old TAF argument in support of USPAP that its lack of specificity
is only the result of trying to avoid “micro-management” of the appraisal process is just what we former Army wiretappers used to call “cover noise”. It screens from hearing the fact that as it stands, USPAP can be used either to exonerate or
execute an appraiser on political motives regardless of the issue at hand. That’s
why more procedural detail is needed, not less.
Appraiser Judy fails the geocompetence test when she gets a citation from
her state for not having a subscription to local MLS. Yet when appraiser Willie
walks when he fails to check online sources or MLS after the property owner assures him the property is not publicly listed for sale. This same thread of delusion seems to run throughout USPAP, undoubtedly promulgated by crusty old MAIs. If any carbon-based life form tells you something, it’s okay to believe it’s true without any further investigation. Just throw in an extraordinary assumption, even though it’s invalid because it’s impossible or unreasonable.
Another reason for more specificity is the utter failure of the HVCC /Dodd-Frank AMC experiment. Instead of being coerced by a mortgage broker,
today’s appraiser is systematically coerced by onerous documentation
requirements, intimidating email, multiple requests for reconsideration and
arbitrary blacklisting. Appraisal quality is depressed by AMC expropriation of what
was once 50% of a normal appraisal fee. Moreover, residential fees in general
haven’t changed for 20 years.
2 GREAT ways to get into appraisal trouble. Tales From Barry Bates
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!!
Terrible Real Estate Agent PhotosJust For Fun!!Most Excellent Photos and Very Creative Captions!!
Very, very funny and weird!!
You just gotta see them! Cannot be described.
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 USPAP, Appraiserville, mortgage rates in 2018, mortgage origination stats, Covid tips for appraisers, etc. |
By Barry Bates
Appraisal is not rocket science, but it’s been around for about 300 years and it worked pretty well when the principles were kept simple and the consequences for ignoring them were disastrous. It would also have been nice if individual lending institutions still had to hold their own loans into perpetuity.
The “Just Pap” is more unpopularly known as the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, which came into being after the last big residential mortgage greeding frenzy (the failure of S&Ls in a 17%-mortgage-rate environment during the late 1980s).
Before your friendly author proceeds violently to eviscerate this not-even-very-well-meaning document, let’s get a minor but nonetheless irritating question off the table. Now you have to pay $75 for a copy of USPAP when, as a matter of public law, it should have been free to read. The solution? The Appraisa; Foundation put it out on the web where it’s free to read (uspap.org), but you can’t download it or search it effectively. So you still have to pony up the bucks.
My central thesis today, children, is still that a bunch of crusty old MAIs and soulless bank appraisers saw an opportunity in 1986 to create a bureaucracy that funds free trips to meetings where crusty old MAIs and soulless bank appraisers can assemble to get pleasantly drunk. This entity became The Appraisal Foundation, an organization designed to foster high appraisal standards that are written in weasel words even Donald Trump could circumvent.
It’s hard to know where to start; there are so many things wrong with USPAP. As an overview, suffice it to say that its structure appears to be designed so that over the long haul, most responsibility for bad loans can be offloaded to appraisers making less than $100K per year.
UsPaP – A Few More Obvious False Appraisal Assumptions
2 GREAT ways to get into appraisal trouble. Tales From Barry Bates
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About Barry Bates
I have known him personally for over 30 years. He has a wide variety of appraisal “experiences” over the years, which he writes about. In his 42 years of appraising he has had different jobs, from a staff appraiser to senior management. He is lots of fun to chat with!
Barry would like to hear from you!! Send an email to barrettbates@gmail.com
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The Three Most Fascinating Homes In 2017Just For Fun!!Very unusual… and two are very low priced ;>
You just gotta see this 2 minute FUNNY video!!
Death and Breakfast, House with Big Cave, and Very Old Historic House
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The Appraisal Standards Board has issued new Q&As for December 2017, dated 12/19/17:Note: personal property and M&E not included in the list below
– Communicating Assignment Results Without an Appraisal Report
– Workfile Requirements When Communicating Assignment Results
– Adding an Intended User
– Assignment Conditions versus Client Conditions
– Proposed Construction Employing an Extraordinary Assumption
– Proposed Construction Employing a Hypothetical Condition
https://appraisalfoundation.sharefile.com/app/#/share/view/seea70b822d24fa59? |
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The Asymmetrical Charm of Crooked HousesThey’re like regular buildings, but with a twist.
Excerpt: THE BUILDINGS THAT OFTEN GET the most praise (one famed tower in Pisa not withstanding) are those that stand up straight, refuse to bend or bow over time. But those buildings are boring. The really compelling constructions are those buildings that, despite looking like they are slowly keeling over, continue to stand, and continue to be used.
Some whimsical tourist traps have been purpose-built at odd angles, but it’s the buildings that were never meant to lean that are far more fascinating. Whether due to construction errors, shifting ground, or just the accumulated weight of time, some buildings have become crooked masterpieces of architectural fortitude. Take a look at some of the most stunning crooked houses in the world.
My comment: Just For Fun!! Good fotos and descriptions. |
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| Home Prices Rising Twice as Fast in U.S. Cities with Highest Natural Hazard Risk Than in Lowest-Risk Cities
Homeowners in Highest-Risk Cities Have More Equity, Longer Homeownership Tenures
Appreciation Slower in Florida and Louisiana Cities with Highest Flood Risk, Bucking Trend
Excerpt:
ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s largest multi-sourced property database, recently released its 2017 U.S. Natural Hazard Housing Risk Index, which found that median home prices in U.S. cities in the 80th percentile for natural hazard risk (top 20 percent with highest risk) have increased more than twice as fast over the past five years and over the past 10 years than median home prices in U.S cities in the 20th percentile for natural hazard risk (bottom 20 percent with lowest risk).
Click here to see a Heat Map of all U.S counties – what does your look like? Search by type of disaster. Plus lots more analysis. Very interesting!!
My comment: Overall high risk counties are scattered all over the country. The article mentions strong economies and scenic locations. I live in Earthquake Country. When I first started appraising here, I was surprised that it did not matter. There is no discount even for being on a fault line. Why? Lots of people want to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. The fault line closest to me (about 10 miles away) is on the top of hills with very good Bay views. There are 3 in the Midwest and east. The large New Madras earthquake fault area in the midwest is on the map as Moderate (last earthquake in the 1800s). Two other small areas in NC and PA are on the map.
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3 incredible private islands
Just for Fun – very short video
A few tidbits
– Locations: Key Largo (FL), Washington state and Long Island NY
– Space for 110 ft. yacht
– Lowest price: $11 million
– Tennis court that doubles as a helicopter pad
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Analyzing the subject’s sales history
By Josh Wailitt
Short video. Worth watching. Check out some of the other videos in his USPAP errors series at www.appraiserelearning.com
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Arm’s-Length Transactions, Part 1
Castles in America
Excerpts:
Roger Declements likes to build his castles the medieval way.
He starts with stone – up to 1,000 tons of it – and then constructs two parallel walls. After years of work, sometimes an entire decade, these walls add up to what he considers “the most advanced, strongest and most comfortable” abode a person can have.
In the United States, where there are no authentic medieval castles, imitation ones are few and far between. But interest in them has grown, in part because of the popularity of books and shows like “Vikings,” “Downton Abbey,” “Game of Thrones” and the Harry Potter series.
My comment: Very interesting article with good photos plus some info on castles in Europe for comparison. FYI – article is in the New York Times, which only allows a few free articles before requiring a subscription.
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Cherry-picking comps & being connected to the neighborhood
By Ryan Lundquist
Excerpts: On paper it looked like value was going to be so much higher. Why? Because comps to the north were easily 10-20% higher, and even Zillow came in $100,000 above the appraisal (ahem). The big cause of such a legitimately lower appraisal boiled down to one thing. Location. Today I want to show a situation where a small section of the neighborhood was blocked off from the rest, and it was a big deal for value. Have a look below and let me know what you think. Anything to add?
Methodology when only 5 sales in 5 years: When appraising something in this section, there were zero sales over the past 2 years and otherwise only 5 sales in the previous 5 years. This means I had to really study older sales to understand how value works…
My comments: Lots of good ideas. Very well written with good analysis and excellent use of graphs and annotated maps. I regularly go back in the past for comps and analysis. Making market conditions adjustments is very easy. I also use percent adjustments, which tend to be stable over time.
Beautiful airports and Victorians under $200,000
Unique and Beautiful Airports Around the World
Architecture that redefines what it means to travel in style.
All I can say is WoW!! Take a break for a few minutes and look at these photos…
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/photos-of-the-worlds-most-unique-and-beautiful-airports
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Affordable homes from all over the country (Hint: No fixers)
Just scroll down the pages.
7 Victorians under $200,000 (No tiny homes)
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/victorian-homes-under-200k/
8 homes under $100,000 (Hint: no fixers)
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/black-friday-bargain-homes-under-100k/
My comment: Wow!! Those Victorians in my city would be way over $1,000,000 on lots under 5,000 sq.ft. !!!
Sadly, The Appraisal Institute is now working against its local chapters by Jonathan Miller, posted 12/9/16
Read more!! →