• Welcome to AppraisersForum.com, the premier online  community for the discussion of real estate appraisal. Register a free account to be able to post and unlock additional forums and features.

If you work in the same cookie cutter subdivisions

USPAP should be scrapped and sent back to the drawing board. As a young appraiser, I thought it was important, the more I learned in this profession about how it’s manipulated and twisted for certain people’s benefits and the detriment of the appraiser, I realize it’s a garbage document.

When’s the last time any of you were in a USPAP class where 95% of the class wasn’t mocking it? Again, not my opinion. that’s what you see when you go to these classes. Hell, you can tell in these classes that the instructors are following a script and they’re not allowed to deviate.

The writers of USPAP were pressured by the unethical stakeholders to remove any comments about the appraisal inspection, and how anybody performing this appraisal service needs to be supervised by a certified appraiser. It’s hard to write a book on ethics and morals when you have none.

Cindy took one look at this and started asking questions. Then she was immediately fired.
To the best of my memory, USPAP has never has anything to say about the property inspection... other than, if you certify you personally inspected the property that means you went there and inspected it. USPAP doesn't require trainees to be supervised by certified appraisers.

Maybe the very first thing that many appraiser need to do is to actually read and understand USPAP instead of just remembering what they can from a class they didn't want to be in.
 
USPAP used to specifically say the property inspection and measuring of the subject Property was an example of significant appraisal assistance and needed to be performed under the direct supervision of the certified appraiser.

It was in there to make it clear that appraisers couldn’t send their cousins out as runners to do field appraisal work. That was pretty much a basic concept in this profession for decades. It used to be very much prohibited for an unlicensed individual to provide appraisal services.

I haven’t open to the last few additions of USPAP, but it’s my understanding that that paragraph has been revised. That’s how this business goes, if rules and laws are written that prohibit what the breakfast club wants to do, they simply whine and dine their friends and mysteriously things disappear, or suddenly change to benefit them.

That’s why I have nothing but contempt for anyone in leadership over the last decade. There’s probably a few that are honorable and ethical that are trying to do the right thing, but they are quickly shown the door. Or sell out.
 
Last edited:
USPAP used to specifically say the property inspection and measuring of the subject Property was an example of significant appraisal assistance and needed to be performed under the direct supervision of the certified appraiser.

It was in there to make it clear that appraisers couldn’t send their cousins out as runners to do field appraisal work. That was pretty much a basic concept in this profession for decades. It used to be very much prohibited for an unlicensed individual to provide appraisal services.

I haven’t open to the last few additions of USPAP, but it’s my understanding that that paragraph has been revised. That’s how this business goes, if rules and laws are written that prohibit what the breakfast club wants to do, they simply whine and dine their friends and mysteriously things disappear, or suddenly change to benefit them.

That’s why I have nothing but contempt for anyone in leadership over the last decade. There’s probably a few that are honorable and ethical that are trying to do the right thing, but they are quickly shown the door. Or sell out.
USPAP has never required that the subject property be inspected at all.... at least not in the 40 years I've been an appraiser.
 
USPAP has never required that the subject property be inspected at all.... at least not in the 40 years I've been an appraiser.

Right, I didn’t say that it did. But it did state that the inspection and measuring of the subject property is an example of significant appraisal assistance.
 
Because half of the assignment is reporting. And because the strengths and weaknesses of the workproduct accrue to the work itself, not to the status, reputation and experience of the appraiser.

They're looking at one report. They're not looking at every report from that subdivision.
 
Right, I didn’t say that it did. But it did state that the inspection and measuring of the subject property is an example of significant appraisal assistance.
No it didn't. Not in USPAP. Not in an AO, either. Not the way you're interpreting it.

In my state the regs outlining the acceptable experience qualifications previously included 11 different categories of acceptable experience for licensing, one of which was professional assistance. That category explicitly commented that the work must go beyond measuring or photographing and that the individual had to perform at least 75% of the analyses, opinions and conclusions in order to count those hours as professional assistance.

Since you keep referring to what the requirements were in the past, here's a dated reference for you:

1766162078694.jpeg
Since you keep mentioning the past, here is the dated reference (this section no longer exists as such in our state regs) in our regs from 2008. The commentary was consistent with the language in then-applicable AO-5 prior to its retirement. In AO-5 the reference was that measuring and inspecting didn't become professional assistance until the individual was competent to relate the attributes to the valuation.

I don't have a pdf for an edition that included AO5, which was retired more than 10 years ago, so I'll just type it out from the 2002 edition:

"... Although this assistant might be qualified to complete an inspection of the subject real estate alone, he or she would not be competent to relate the inspection to the appraisal approaches and an inspection by the principal appraiser or a more experienced appraisal assistant would be required."

As proficiency is demonstrate by an assistant, it is appropriate for the principal appraiser to place greater reliance on the work of that assistant. ..."

The 3rd party inspections you're complaining about don't include any consideration of how various attributes relate to the valuation. They're merely taking inventory, not forming any opinions or conclusions about how those features fit into the market. The appraiser using that info has to do all those opinions and conclusions on their own. Same as they do with all their other data sources.
 
Last edited:
Why do we have to show our work for the same adjustment we've done 10,000 times before for the same lender and same UW? And yes, my butt adjustments are spot on every time but a simple view adjustment shouldn't need a freaking matched pair (quantifiable) every time when I've done this a million times before. Yet another reason the VA is great to work for the same UW at the same lender doesn't say a peep about obvious simple adjustments but when it's a GSE/FHA I get static sometimes over the dumbest stuff. Rant over

Let's be honest: you don't want to ever hear back from a u/w! Ever!

The answer is that if you've done a matched-pair analysis for a view, 10,000 times, then just use one from one of your old reports. Btw, you can use a Fairfax view for Arlington, Falls Church, and Alexandria City as well, and you can use old paired-data analyses for new reports. I've got one from 2024 I'll send you :D
 
No it didn't.

Even back when this was being debated at the appraisal boards, the Revaa lackeys they flew in, didn’t argue that that’s what it said. Their argument was that’s not what it meant.

Of course, it’s kinda hard to argue What’s written when you hand out copies of it for everyone to see.

Instead of giving you the year and the page and the line which I’ve done many times, and I don’t know how to screenshot pictures on this, I’m not going to do that anymore. But even AI think you’re wrong. :rof:


“In the Context of Property Appraisal (USPAP)
The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), which govern the work of certified appraisers, provide specific examples of what constitutes "significant appraisal assistance." This assistance relates to the core appraisal process and requires appraiser competency.
Examples of activities considered significant appraisal assistance include:
  • Research and selection of comparable properties and data.
  • Inspection of the subject property and comparable properties.
  • Estimating accrued depreciation.
  • Forecasting income and expenses. “
 
Let's be honest: you don't want to ever hear back from a u/w! Ever!

The answer is that if you've done a matched-pair analysis for a view, 10,000 times, then just use one from one of your old reports. Btw, you can use a Fairfax view for Arlington, Falls Church, and Alexandria City as well, and you can use old paired-data analyses for new reports. I've got one from 2024 I'll send you :D
This is one of the risks of hunkering down in a single market for decades...the tendency to assume you know the market becomes a stronger force than the desire to analyze the market. When that point is reached, experience becomes the antithesis of competency. When you move around a bit, you get in the habit of assuming you don't know what you don't analyze.
 
Find a Real Estate Appraiser - Enter Zip Code

Copyright © 2000-, AppraisersForum.com, All Rights Reserved
AppraisersForum.com is proudly hosted by the folks at
AppraiserSites.com
Back
Top