Education

Valuation from Both the Fee and Assessment Side of Things, Part 1

Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Woody Fincham

This is the first part of a series that will briefly compare and contrast real estate assessment and standard fee practice. There are lots of similarities as well as differences between the two disciplines. There are both superior and inferior aspects to both sides, with both sides producing appraisers and analysts that are unique to their respective sides. Having worked both sides at staff and management levels, I can see how a combination of both disciplines could very well produce valuation professionals that are, to borrow one of my favorite band’s lyrics, “Some Kind of Monster”.

FHA Appraisals and Reporting Requirements

Monday, March 3, 2014
Appraisal Buzz Staff

The Appraisal Buzz recently caught up with Peter Gillispie and Craig Julian to discuss their upcoming continuing education class, "FHA Appraisals and Reporting Requirements". This one day class will be held Monday, May 12th in Annapolis, MD. We knew our readers would like to know a little more about the instructors and the class itself so we thought we would share their answers.

Buzz: Thank you for joining us Pete and Craig, could you tell us a little about your history in the appraisal industry.

The New Normal

Monday, February 17, 2014
Joan Trice

I have delayed my usual beginning of the year prognostication for a number of reasons. I spend a lot of time speaking to individual appraisers as well as clients of appraisers -- both lenders and AMCs. There are indeed some common threads and of course there are the looming regulatory hairballs that affect us all. I also wanted to review the responses to the Appraisal Buzz National Appraiser Survey to which, by the way, it isn't too late to respond.

Application of UAD Quality and Condition Definitions

Monday, January 27, 2014
Bill King

It has been almost three years since the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) was formally announced by Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The first version of Appendix D outlining field-specific standardization requirements was dated February 11, 2011. This guide detailed specific formats and responses for certain fields of the four major residential appraisal report forms.

How Many Ways Can You Support Adjustments in Your Appraisals? – Part 3

Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Tony Lesicka

Over the past few weeks, we've released a couple examples from our book "Real Estate Appraisal Practice: A Collection of Examples" (www.appraisalpracticebook.com) which showcases examples of real world quantitative solutions to unique and common appraisal problems. In the first two postings, we showed both a cost- and a rent-based method for supporting an office finish adjustment for industrial properties in a sales comparison approach.

Back to the Basics

Thursday, January 9, 2014
Luke Tomaszewski

In today’s, post mortgage apocalypse, market one would assume that the most important part of an appraisal is the accuracy of the estimate of value.  By virtue of the data being utilized, its uniformity in how it is presented, the crackdown on form-filling number pushing appraisers, and all the tools we have at our disposal, estimates of value should be more and more accurate every day.

2014 National Appraiser Survey

Monday, January 6, 2014
Appraisal Buzz Staff

It's the beginning of a new year, and with that it's time for the Annual National Appraiser Survey. We hear from appraisers throughout the year in comments to articles and interviews in Appraisal Buzz, on our blog and also in discussions on the Buzz Forum. We just want to affirm that we are indeed listening. So take a load off and let us know what are the most important issues to you.

We will share results of the survey on the Appraisal Buzz website as soon as the results are compiled. Thank you in advance for a being a loyal Appraisal Buzz subscriber.

What are the Rules on Photographing Comparable Sales?

Monday, December 23, 2013
Bill King

Years ago the standard of practice was that no comparable photographs were taken. It was expected that the appraiser viewed comparable sales from the street, but photos were not submitted. The certifications in today's appraisal reports did not exist, and there was no USPAP. The advent of comparable sale photographs as an exhibit to an appraisal report results, at least in part, from the practice of not driving the comparable sales.

Following Instructions

Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Joshua Walitt

 

I normally get very few revision requests, and usually for minor items. I’m not saying this to pat myself on the back, but to explain how surprised I was a few weeks ago when I received two revision requests in the same week. And they weren’t just any type of revision request: they were the dreaded “instruction” from an underwriter.

“Appraiser to include a second sale whose unadjusted sale price supports the opinion of value, and resubmit report.”