Foreclosure Appraisal

[Diana Malcolm]

Huh! You are doing REO appraisals as "drive bys"?

Oregon Doug
(how did they get to be REO's to begin with?)

Doug, I have a memo..

To All Fannie Mae Appraisal Vendors:

Exterior Appraisals

Beginning November 1, 2004 we will make a change to our valuation process. On REO properties that are occupied and/or not yet accessible, we will request you to complete an exterior (drive-by) appraisal.....

It went on to say

On these exterior appraisals, yoiu should assume the subject to be in average-marketable (repaired) condition.

That sounds pretty easy to me. I received an order last week and I notified them that a property was occupied and I am waiting on new order. We haven't discussed fees for these....

 

[Oregon Doug]

Diana - ya, it does sound easy. You just wave your Fannie Mae memo in the breeze all day long and ask yourself "what financial shape is Fannie Mae in now days...how did she get there?

You gonna hide behind your memo when she gets mad and starts looking for someone's (appraisers) flesh to strip off?

Oregon Doug

ps - she's already looking.

 

[Diana Malcolm]

Doug, what do I care what financial shape they are in, as long as they continue to fire off a check to me when they receive the report for an REO appraisal? the checks clear, what more do I need?

If they are "looking" for appraisers, I have a hunch it's the ones that did the appraisal on the bad loan, not the ones who help them determine a list price for dumping the REO. IMHO

 

[Diana Malcolm]

I talked with the rep. I will go back and do interior inspection when vacant and do another report. I am thinking this is a staged assignment...? mmmm.

 

[Don Clark]

B) I have been doing VA Liquidation appraisals(Foreclosures) for years now. When access is denied or impossible I make the extraordinary assumption and limiting condition that the interior and all non observed areas are average compared to other similar properties in the market. For each part of the process not physically observed I mark "unknown", document attempts to get access. If denied access it falls to the defaulting borrower to cover any excess when the property is foreclosed. I use what ever is the appropriate form for the property type. But, that is re VA policy. Sounds like Fannie Mae is in accord with that. You cannot be held responsible for what you were not allowed to observe as long as you document that fact.

 

[Pa'akai]

Sounds like a pre-foreclosure. When I worked at Bank Of America we would get these a lot of times. For some reason, probably legally, they were not allowed to contact the borrower. We would have to assume that the property was in avg. condition and that the value could change upon inspection.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Sounds like the reviewer is being a jerk.

You make assumptions when you do not see the interior of the property. To automatically assume it is in poor condition and suffers from obsolescence is up-surd! it is what it is, and you are the person making that judgement call.

Fannie Mae notified all appraisers doing their liquidation appraisals to assume the property is in average marketing condition when only doing an exterior inspection. Once they have control of the property they then have the appraiser go back and do an interior inspection and, if necessary, amend the appraisal. That is their "Scope of the Work".

To cover your butt, cite their directive and state what you did. After all these years I have found it relatively easy to visualize the condition of the interior from what I see outside. Now this isn't 100% but most of the time it's close. I am in the middle of three of these right now. Got $275 for the initial drive-by appraisal and will get another $175 for interior inspection...that is $100 more than my usual fee.

VA also has us do driveby's if we cannot access the property. I have never had them come back on an appraisal in 11 years on the panel.

 

[Diana Malcolm]

You gonna hide behind your memo when she gets mad and starts looking for someone's (appraisers) flesh to strip off?

Oregon Doug

ps - she's already looking.

Looks like I'll have good company in the hospital with no flesh, for doing exterior REO's...uh, Oregon Doug? I noticed you don't say this kind of crap to them

 

[Diana Malcolm]

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