Crappy Hybrid Inspection

[djd09]

i'm sorry did i ever mention prohibit. nope. misdirecting is fundamental

if the appraiser is responsible, shouldn't they be picking, paying, qualifying, the inspector? oh nevermind

 

[George Hatch]

The appraiser is responsible for what they do. Obviously. The appraiser cannot be held accountable for services they didn't perform, that wouldn't be fair. Also obvious.

You're not responsible for it if the termite inspection turned out to be inaccurate, or if the title report turned out to be inaccurate, or if public records turned out to be inaccurate. What is it that makes you think a 3rd party inspection report is any different in nature from any other piece of data you use in your appraisal? If you did the inspection then you're responsible for its accuracy; but if someone else did the inspection then THEY are responsible for its accuracy. Your responsibility WRT that report is limited to your decision to either use it or not use it, exactly the same as applies to your decisions to use/not use any other data source.

From a liability perspective it can be no other way.

 

[glenn walker]

i'm sorry did i ever mention prohibit. nope. misdirecting is fundamental

if the appraiser is responsible, shouldn't they be picking, paying, qualifying, the inspector? oh nevermind

No ---Not Under this Model --You are in participation on a team and not the controller, if you could choose the inspector that would make you an " advocate" for a certain person you liked or trusted, which violates USPAP Now I understand you may not like it but you lost this battle. Time to get over it

 

[Andee]

Some of these "are done by staff apprasiers for AMC's who have no choice , if they have a time slot open the AMC sends them on a hybrid inspection.

WRT independent contractors I predict a revolving door of them. If they take it on as a side gig, the intense time pressure of an AMC hounding them for a deadline will negate any freedom of choice aspect, the pay will be mediocre after gas and expenses . Some might stick with it .

The inspection for this particular one was not completed by an appraiser. The AMC Staff appraiser wrote the report and the AMC has a subsidiary company that does nothing but inspections, and they are not licensed appraisers.

 

[Andee]

What I think is unwise is for an appraiser or anyone else arbitrarily assuming these inspections will all be equal to each other in quality and/or equal to what they would do in an inspection. We don't make that assumption when it comes to using info from another appraiser's appraisal report because we know that IRL some appraisers are more competent with their inspections than others. This inspection report isn't a POS because it's a third party inspection report, it's a POS because this particular inspector was as incompetent as some appraisers are. The next one may/may not be.

It's funny that you should mention this because I had two hybrids that came in for review, both from the same company of staff appraisers, both inspections completed by the same subsidiary. Each report had a different set of people working on it. The first one, no major issues noted that warranted me sending it back and telling them to order another report. The second one, is this debacle of an inspection to create a disaster of a report.

I know you said that I went in with bias, but it's kind of hard to do that when the first one didn't have any issues, yet this one did.

 

[Andee]

USPAP has never required Physical Inspections or Measuring Properties. On Private assignments we do some where we have never even stepped foot on the property . The Lender Guidelines and Engagement is what requires- many things appraisers tend to believe have to be done.. It's all about the Engagement - Assignment Conditions and the Scope of Work required to estimate a reasonable supported estimate of Market Value.
In the future I see a broad variety of different options people will be using and ordering. The days of just the 1004 appears to be winding down. But it will still take a few more years maybe as much as 5 years.

The lack of a physical inspection reminds me of a report that I wrote at the beginning of COVID. County records, CoreLogic and everything I could possibly get my hands on for the square footage of this particular property said 1376 sf. I finish the report, send it off to get it sent back telling me that the house is 2,317 sf. And I'm supposed to know this how???? I was basically told that I could look at the aerial photo and tell it was bigger. I responded with, I don't know what's under that roof and I couldn't find any filed permits, even called the city, for all I know that roof is a covered patio or a garage.

Eventually they said the lender has a sketch from a prior appraisal, yet they couldn't bother to send that knowing the report they ordered originally.

 

[Andee]

Attached grills are like fireplaces IMO. Impossible to find a supportable adjustment for. I would never adjust for just the grill. That’s a small feature, what’s the value anyway? A couple thousand? Curious what other people adjust for attached grills now.

It depends on the neighborhood out here, we have lots of neighborhoods where that feature is at every third house and it's usually accompanied by an outdoor fireplace, so you're able to determine an adjustment. We have neighborhoods where the builder puts outdoor fireplaces on every patio and stubs in a gas line if you want to install that outdoor kitchen/attached grill/green egg.

I was at a house a few months ago and they had an outdoor kitchen in one area, with grill, green egg, sink, mini fridge, and up against another wall he had another grill and green egg. The house wasn't anything special for that particular area, it's just what they wanted. This would be the uncommon house in the neighborhood with this many grills...maybe they liked to get together with friends, grill out and go swimming.

 

[djd09]

No ---Not Under this Model --You are in participation on a team and not the controller, if you could choose the inspector that would make you an " advocate" for a certain person you liked or trusted, which violates USPAP Now I understand you may not like it but you lost this battle. Time to get over it

team

advocate

just make sure they send their E&O insurance fair is fair .

 

[Carnivore]

Its not about decreasing time , it's about getting appraisers used to not inspecting and to be more open in the future on new products that will not require physical inspections.

YES! They have proof or evidence because of COVID. During Covid Legions of appraisers around the nation drove out to the Subject and took pictures of street and frontal pictures. Homeowner took all interior pix and sent them to appraiser, who then completed a 1004. So how is this any different than what we are discussing? Essentially there is not except the drive time. Did you need to drive out to subject and get exterior pix. Not really, because the Homeowner could have taken them also. FNMA could have waived the Exterior also, but they didn't. They needed reliable exterior pix of subject and comparable and were willing to use owner provided interiors. Clearly exterior pix are important because of when they were taken. This is very good data for the internal FNMA AVM.

 

[J Grant]

So how do you think inspections should be addressed in USPAP? Full interior/exterior by the appraiser, every time and with no exceptions regardless of what the users want?

Fundamentalist Form Monkey version of appraising, "there is only one appraisal under the heavens and the URAR is it's name".

It should be : "Any time an inspection is performed for the purpose of an appraisal, the inspection is considered part of appraisal practice. "

That would keep non licensed , non appraisers out of inspecting properties for mortgage lending.