... Regardless of the label on the cover or the authors of any changes, the underlying concepts and principles will remain the same, even if a few details in the housekeeping are added or removed. As long as those concepts and principles don't change then whatever the label on the manual says is immaterial and of no effect on the way appraisals are performed by the professionals who are working in good faith.
Oh, I'd say the so-called "principles" are OVERLY SIMPLISTIC common sense. That is all.
Or, in other words, you can follow USPAP and create a mess. Two independent appraisers can appraise the same property, per USPAP, and wind up with a 20% or greater difference in value.
That's largely because the math embedded in USPAP is barely existent.
And that is just the tip of the Iceberg.
USPAP will be largely replaced in the end, it's principles largely unenforceable and subject to bias. As the Appraisal Institute is forever saying: "Appraisals are an opinion." If only they really understood, ever understood, what they were saying. Double-talk that only genuine idiots are capable of doing with a straight face that almost convinces you they know what they are talking about, even if it doesn't make sense. Gobbledygook circular reasoning like statements about "Value is what something is worth." And so on.
I have never come across any appraisers that had a good definition of value, market value and so on. Because, actually, to really understand these things, you need a very good understanding of the fundamentals of statistics. And that is definitely not the case.
- And actually a lot of appraisers could get a sufficient understanding of statistics and programming, if they really were motivated to learn and do the work to acquire a working understanding of the important principles.
