Change in Virginia Regulatory Requirements

[Don Clark]

8)

For Virginia Appraisers & those in all states holding Virginia License & Certifications:

Proposed changes include deleting the requirement for the 3 hour board mandated course in Virginia Law and Regulations. This has been a stumbling block for reciprocity with some states, notably North Carolina. Also for Certified General Appraisers in many states who do some business with Virginia. It will be replaced by the new AQB requirement for 7 hours of USPAP update every 2 years.

Make distance education available for prelicense as well as CE.

Require trainees who are in that status more than 2 years, to take CE courses.

All may be viewed at either:

http://www.state.VA.us/dpor

or

www.townhall.state.VA.us

Also available is the list of topics that are acceptable for CE including real estate related computer applications. Good for such things as Alamode training,etc.

Also of interest. An appraiser can get 2 hours of CE for attending Appraisal Board Meetings, not to exceed 4 hours in any 2 year period.

Enjoy
:!:

Don

PS Austin, I hope you are reading this.

 

[Liz South]

Don -
Thanks for the info -
All other courses are fairly easy to schedule and deal with other than the 3 hour board course. Hopefully they will change this requirement. Thanks for alerting us.

Liz Southworth

 

[David C. Johnson]

Congratulations, Don & Virginia.

Looks like some progress being made to me.

I know Austin will be pleased to here it.

Regards,

David C. Johnson, Raleigh

 

[Austin]

David: You are correct, Austin is glad to hear it. I swear this is the turth: I have taken the state mandated law class about 5 times and every time I have taken it I came out of the class knowing less than I did when I went in. The instructors, in all cases X-appraisal board chairmen, knew a lot more, or least not as much as they thought they did, at the end of the class. It was a total joke, but a very expensive joke. Total BS session. Same is true for the USPAP class. I take this class from the AI chapter with top flight instructors and that class is a waste of time. I listened to lenghty lectures by two AI instructors about the new definition of market value in the 2002 USPAP and told them that there is no new definition of market value in the new USPAP. It is just a general comment on definitions of market value. Seven hours of USPAP every two years is a joke. Every 6 years is enough. I have learned more on this board than I ever learned at any CE, law, or USPAP class. We should get 14 hours of credit every year for time spent on this board. USPAP class should be on line and in a format similar to this board with lectures and questions from the peanut gallery. Now if we can get NC to join the parade, maybe light is visible at the end of the tunnel! Like for instance, allowing on line CE. Here is my view on instructors, no reflection Don: About 25 years ago I ran a tobacco farm operation. I went to Goldsboro, NC, to a farm show. A tobacco seed company hired the most successful farmer in NC to promote their seeds. I was talking to him about tobacco varieties and asked for his advice on which variety to plant. He gave me his opinion, and I replied, "that is the exact opposite of what our Federal County Agent told me." To which he replied, "If the county agent knows so damn much about raising tobacco, what the hell is he doing working for the Federal Government." The moral of the story is that people with the correct answers usually ain't the ones teaching and for darn sure don't work for the government.

 

[Austin]

I just went to the site links Dave posted above and read the newsletter concerning the changes. Could it be? A state-board actually has some people with a brain intact. Either that or they have been reading my post. Sounds like something I would have though up... Totally logical. Maybe there is hope after all.
For you NC boys, Dave, Tom, Bob: Did you know our Virginia Board is proposing 2 hours of credit for attending state appraisal board meetings? Could they actually care what we think? Apparently so! I am proud to be a Virginian this day! As every day. An island of sanity adrift in a sea of chaos and turmoil.

 

[David C. Johnson]

<span style='color:darkblue'>Austin:

I am glad for you that Virginia is coming around a bit. You deserved a break. I was in attendance last year when the current North Carolina Appraisal Board (c-NCAB) soundly voted down the idea of any CE credit-granting for board meeting attendance (except for board members themselves perhaps -- I am being stonewalled on an answer to this very question I posed in writing to the c-NCAB Executive Director). The actual reasons for their position on the issue is more than obvious, but their stated rationale was -- as expected -- absurd (i.e., read: "stupid & deceitful"). The ones we would have expected to be strongly against it, were. The few willing to consider it, stayed quiet. Very typical.

Austin, it was Don who put up the links. I spent a few minutes at both locations and hope to eventually get around to checking them out better. Thanks, Don. If either of you get a chance, let your board members know that others across the country have been made aware of their progressive actions, and find it encouraging.

The concern was raised in an article found on the Kentucky Website by either Larry Disney or Sam Blackburn (I don't remember which one it was for sure) about the possibility of appraiser licensing and regulatory responsibilities being snatched away from the states just as fast and easily as it was given to them in the first place by Congress. (You can bet this has been, and continues to be, seriously contemplated.) Virginia may be doing its part to help avert this. The states themselves certainly DO NOT condone the irrational and counterproductive actions by some substandard board members erroneously selected for board service. With campaign finance issues likely to stay on the front burner -- as more Enron-like examples and their consequences develop over this decade -- it may become increasingly personally advantageous for appointing bodies to be much more diligent in their appointment duties. Cash & appointment quid pro quos in the USA are just starting to be viewed by many Americans the same way even third world countries have long viewed America's ridiculous and hypocritical status quo.

I am convinced the two of you (and a few others in Virginia and perhaps elsewhere) have made it easier/safer for existing, responsible members to prevail in appraiser-related issues before this Virginia board.

Proud of you.

Regards,

David C. Johnson, Raleigh, NC</span>