On March 16, Senators Johnson and Crapo released a discussion draft for replacing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This post first appeared on The Hill's Congress Blog on March 24, 2014:
The draft bill released on Sunday, March 16 by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) will not protect taxpayers from future bailouts.
I personally want to thank you for taking the time to respond to the survey. I know that every year, especially over the past few years, the appraisal profession has gone through such enormous changes that "this too shall pass". But they never do.
We are getting ourselves ready for the Third Party Oversight Summit next week, April 16, in New Orleans at the Hotel Monteleone. If you are a lender or an AMC this is a must do event. It is not too late to sign up. Register here.
On April 9th, Allterra Group is hosting a special webinar on comparable data. This will be a great opportunity for appraisers to learn more about some specific aspects of the GSE Uniform Appraisal Dataset in regard to comparable data and some of the perceived challenges with the condition and quality ratings. The webinar will be presented by Elizabeth Green, Principal Consultant with rel-e-vant Solutions and Charles Gress, Senior Vice President & Chief Residential Appraiser for Martin & Wood Appraisal Group and moderated by John McIntyre.
The results of the April Foolery Contest are in! We are impressed with the creativity of all the submissions. We are pleased to award free Valuation Expo passes to the authors of the best poem, comic, and video about Valuation Expo or the Appraisal Industry as a whole. We were overwhelmed with the responses from appraisers across the country. We were finally able to narrow it down to one winner in each category. We also wanted to recognize some of the finalists who submitted some great entries.
Every year the Collateral Risk Network joins together to nominate and vote on the most influential mind in the appraisal industry for the year. The winner is presented with the prestigious Valuation Visionary Award. We are pleased to announce the winner of this year's award is Jeff Bradford, founder of Bradford Technologies.
At The Appraisal Foundation, we often encounter misperceptions about the role of appraisals in the home buying process. From first time homebuyers to seasoned real estate professionals, there is often confusion about the purpose of an appraisal, how it is ordered and carried out, and what type of communication is allowed with appraisers. Dispelling these misunderstandings is critical to educating borrowers, lenders, real estate brokers, and homebuilders on the central role of appraisals in the mortgage process.
I have an unique point of view within the appraisal industry. I am constantly interacting with appraisers all across this country via email, telephone, Skype, webinar, snail mail, conferences, [breath] and workshops. I guess you could say I have my finger on the pulse of appraisers. In a very real way, I 'feel the pain' they are currently feeling because I hear it from multiple sources. Right now, most are feeling a bit of a pinch. Okay, that was an understatement. Appraisers I interact with have reported a decrease in business from 10% to as much as 40% in the past three months!
Too often we receive complaints from Buzz subscribers who say no one is standing up for appraisers in the battle over Customary & Reasonable Fees. Well, we are excited to tell you that someone has emerged who is trying to do something to combat unreasonable fees.
I am truly excited about this announcement. We have been guilty of "the cobbler’s children need new shoes". At Allterra Group we support multiple websites—Appraisal Buzz, Valuation Expo, Collateral Risk Network and soon Allterra Online. Each of our lines of business has been well branded yet our corporate site was admittedly neglected. All of that has changed as of today.
