Google StreetView Maps-No Need to Drive SP or Comps?

[Fred]

This is an interesting statement. For me AO-18 muddies the water on this issue.

Maybe, but not to the market, They are using common sense, responding to faster and cheaper, and reports that have risk-rating information and not just values. It's some appraisers mired in that incoherent opinion, while the market mystifies them by applying the same principle of substitution appraisers claim to be experts in.

Remember, we are supposed to be develop principles and theories by observing how "economic man" acts, not by thinking we can issue him fiats.

According to the ASB it is important for people to know who they receive the AVM from more then how the conclusion was arrived at.

Carnivore,
People don't "receive AVM." They receive appraisals, done by appraisers who use AVMs, ie use computers.

 

[Mike Boyd]

"idle" teenagers or smells, etc. .

Is there a difference? LOL

 

[Jim Onderisin]

I searched my old Cleveland suburban address with Google Earth. It showed a nice detailed arial photo of the house next door. When they work out all the bugs, they'll really have something.

 

[mdtulips]

I use Google and MS's Virtual Earth all the time. They're nice for seeing what's in the backyard of comps and things like ponds, easements, etc. I think they are great to supplement a visual inspection but certainly must be aware of old data.

Again, to reiterate what some of the others are saying....they are NOT ALWAYS RIGHT..when I use google maps for my parents house, it points to the neighbors house and targets their backyard. Their neighbors home is 1,500 square feet and does not have a pool, while my parents home is 2,200 square feet with a pool. Besides, google and virtual earth won't tell you if the inside is falling apart, if there's any mold, and if the house has any health and safety issues. It's a great tool...but it does not mean the end of residential appraising.

 

[Couch Potato]

This is an interesting statement. For me AO-18 muddies the water on this issue. It seems to me that any reasonable common person receiving an AVM would think that they have received an appraisal of something ie. real property, personal property,. This would also extend to leases and even intangibles. No matter who they received it from, I am sure the perception is they received some type of valuation that did not involve their input(advice, input to there decision process).

According to the ASB it is important for people to know who they receive the AVM from more then how the conclusion was arrived at. Problem I have is that most people receiving an AVM don't know that USPAP(inclusive of all AO, Statements, Q&A) exist or don't know or have not read what it says.

Who told the ASB they were in charge of defining what an AVM actually is?

The people that receive an AVM are loan salespeople and underwriters, I wouldn't be too concerned with them understanding what an AVM is or is not. Borrowers are simply told, "no appraisal required" when an AVM is used.

Seems to me the US Congress put the ASB in charge. The ASB was put in charge of regulating standards for appraisals. In the case of AVMs they simply said, "that is not an appraisal." On the one hand their decision is an elevated view of what it takes to create an appraisal, on the other hand it leaves automated appraisal makers as unregulated unregulated competition.

 

[Fred]

Seems to me the US Congress put the ASB in charge. The ASB was put in charge of regulating standards for appraisals.

For federally related transactions.

FWIW, there is nothing wrong with the ASB's defintion of an AVM. It's software and they say it's software. It's only their opinion that is inchoherent.