Is Driving By Comps Still Necessary?

[CANative]

If driving by comps becomes unnecessary, how much longer will real, live appraisers be necessary?

 

[Bill Rose]

This is a duplicate of another older thread. Fannie accepts MLS photos as long as they are accurate and clear. It's in the Fannie guidelines.

Should photos of comps be necessary at all? Not if you know the hood, your MLS photos are good and the data in the MLS sheet matches the property detail.

 

[Stone]

Originally posted by Billie Hiser@Feb 19 2005, 07:38 PM
yeah yeah it has a lake view, from the roof on a step ladder stretching on your tippy toes!

:rofl:

I lived in that house, on Lakeview Avenue no less. We literally could see the lake in the late fall or winter, from the roof. Of course it was a bungalow, so with the pitch, the only time this happened is when I had to go up and caulk around the chimney. Not something that was ever going to happen just for the view.

 

[Stone]

Originally posted by Bill Rose@Feb 19 2005, 09:51 PM
This is a duplicate of another older thread. Fannie accepts MLS photos as long as they are accurate and clear. It's in the Fannie guidelines.

This is not a duplicate of the other thread. This a discussion about the need to drive by comps, not whether it is OK to use MLS photos. These are two very different topics, IMO.

I agree with the sentiments of Greg's post:

If driving by comps becomes unnecessary, how much longer will real, live appraisers be necessary?

Can you say "slippery slope?"

 

[Willie]

Originally posted by Bill Rose@Feb 19 2005, 10:51 PM
This is a duplicate of another older thread. Fannie accepts MLS photos as long as they are accurate and clear. It's in the Fannie guidelines.

Should photos of comps be necessary at all? Not if you know the hood, your MLS photos are good and the data in the MLS sheet matches the property detail.

That's one big if Bill.

My opinion, if something less than a full appraisal with comp street inspections is needed on something like a low LTV, then an interior full inspection WITHOUT comp inspection is a superior product than a 2055 extrior only, with comp inspections.

 

[Willie]

Originally posted by Linda M Lynch@Feb 19 2005, 04:28 PM
To be totally honest, there are some neighborhoods that I appraise property in every single month of the year. I know those particular neighborhoods so well that I could walk them in my sleep. Heck, I've appraised most of the houses in those neighborhoods at least once. So do I feel the need to drive by comps in those neighborhoods? No. Sorry if that offends some people's belief system but, darn it, common sense HAS to come into play every once in awhile.

Why would you drive by them????????? You've seen them, whatever you mean by seen.

An old appraiser told me to go back a second time and look at the comp again, a couple of years after I had first seen it. He said, "Just do it, you may see something different". That has stuck in my mind.

 

[Bill Rose]

That's not a big "if" here, Mike.

 

[George Hatch]

If what the RE agents said about properties could be said to be trustworthy, the residential appraisal profession as we know it today would have never come about. Part of the reason we're here is for the impartial analysis, and part of it is to objectively qualify the data. One of the ways we qualify our data is to personally check it out. If our clients don't mind us skipping that step, that's their choice so long as they take the responsibility for making that choice. If it's okay with them it's usually going to be okay with me.

Regardless, we usually certify in our appraisals that we physically inspected the exteriors of these comps. If I'm doing what I say I'm doing, I have no reason not to use my own photos as a demonstration of that. If someone is routinely relying only on the MLS photos, it's my assumption that they aren't personally inspecting like they say they are, and they have no way of demonstrating otherwise. You folks who live in areas where it isn't always feasible because of snow or inaccessibility, that's obviously a different story. I don't have that excuse here so I'm not going to use it.

 

[DTB]

George,

This question regarding " objectively qualifying the data". Have you ever spoken with an agent about a comp and have them conradict a major point on the listing sheet? I really haven't. Mostly it makes me aware of item not on the listing sheet. i.e. enclosed poch versus open. That type of thing.

I remodel and resell many houses and often wonder how reliably we can qualify data without ever having been inside a comp. The levels of quality in a remodel are quite variable. The list can go from a small electric service panel, cheap kitchen cabinets ( although oak,cherry or maple) flooring grades to top of the line stuff. Yet we make decision ( adjustments) without really knowing what level of remodel was done. I'll bet many appraisers don't know the level of remodel IN THE SUBJECT.

It's one of the things that gnaw at me. We make thorough and detailed reports and really don't the underlying elements of the comps. guess we do the best with what we have.

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

Have you ever spoken with an agent about a comp and have them conradict a major point on the listing sheet?

YES! Many times!