Land Safe

[Rod_Wycoff]

License requirements for reviewers.

Do you need a license in order to perform Standard 3 desk reviews if the value isn't changed by the reviewer?

Along similar lines, most staff reviewers for national lenders aren't licensed in all the mandatory states where they perform reviews.

 

[Kevin Mc]

If you don't mind working for half price they are good. Occasionally you can squeeze something resembling a living wage out of them but don't bank on it. As for reviewing appraisals outside your area of competency, stay out of my cross hairs. Good luck.

 

[hastalavista]

Just a question, how is it legal to review appraisal reports for states in which one is not licensed?

It depends on the SOW. It is done all the time.

 

[Fred]

Do you need a license in order to perform Standard 3 desk reviews if the value isn't changed by the reviewer?

Whether one needs a license would have something to do with what the laws of the state your in are, whether it is a transaction the state has jurisdiction over, etc.

There is some language in that question that concern me. What other kind of review is there besides Std 3? Also, I don't think reviewing includes "changing" someone's value. A second party can come up with a second opinion of value.

 

[hastalavista]

Do you need a license in order to perform Standard 3 desk reviews if the value isn't changed by the reviewer?

No. If you are not an appraiser, you can voluntarily comply with USPAP. Or, you can choose not to comply.

Along similar lines, most staff reviewers for national lenders aren't licensed in all the mandatory states where they perform reviews.

This is true. There are some who argue on this board that they must be (some cite state regulations; which gives them a strong argument). That's not the case for all states and, to my knowledge, those cited state regulation have never been tested either administratively (by the regulators) or legally (in the courts).

The SOW of the review would determine (in my opinion) if a local appraisal was required or not. Few like the fact that an SOW for a review can be such that it does not require a local appraisal. I don't know what to say about that other than "being local" is not a USPAP requirement- one must be geographically competent to perform the assignment so that the results are credible. But here is the key ingredient to that requirement-

Line 399 & 400 of USPAP:
Credible assignment results require support by relevant evidence and logic. The credibility of assignment results is always measured in the context of the intended use.
(my bold).

Not sometimes, not usually, but always. If the intended use of the review is for internal lending decision-making, and the client and review appraiser can agree to a set of criteria that provides the client with credible results given their intended use, then local geographic presence may or may not be part of that criteria.

 

[CANative]

Geographical competency is an optional USPAP item.

 

[JRS at OBX]

As for reviewing appraisals outside your area of competency, stay out of my cross hairs. Good luck.

As usual, I agree with Kevin. (I'm starting to think I'm going to have to buy Kevin a beer)

 

[Fritz in NY]

I remember arguing with an appraiser in Texas, who was reviewing my report from Upstate NY and insisting that I change the report because "Basements were an over improvement". I asked if he had ever been to NY? "NO", had he ever been north of the Mason-Dixon line? "NO". What gives this Guy was working for Wells Fargo, not licensed in NY and "INCOMPETANT" to complete his assignment.
BTW, if you don't know NY, my estimate in Upstate NY is that at least 90% of SF homes have basements.

 

[David Beasley]

Just a question, how is it legal to review appraisal reports for states in which one is not licensed?

I've been asking this question since 1990, and haven't heard a legitimate explanation as yet.

But so long as underwriters from India to NY review our work with a critical scope, I guess we can expect skippies from all 50 states to continue to do it too. Why not? It's easy money for them. Sit down with a "How to complete a URAR" guide and red line away. How hard is that? lol

While I know it will never happen, certainly not before computers take over and put us all out to pasture, I would like to see a QC system across the country that makes use of an appraiser's "peers" to do reviews on his or her work. And I mean "peers" as USPAP means it, and peers from the subject market at that. Peers from the subject state at the very least.

Take now for instance, people on TV, even people here are crying about the housing market collapse and all the appraisal issues going on "country wide". Really? The NC market is not immune, but is far from a "collapse" at this point. Home prices are still actually going up in Raleigh and Charlotte to read genuine research-backed market data on the subject (Raleigh sees over 1000 people PER MONTH move here). But let me say "stable to increasing values" on a report that is reviewed by a desk jockey in Ten Buck Two and just WAIT for the phone calls...UW:"But prices are declining all across the country!" Me:"Are you sure? In *all* the markets in *all* 50 states? All 300 million people worth?"...They just don't get it. Someone with their head actually in the game here in NC would though...as would most clear thinking and experienced appraisers country wide that actually understand the existence of sub-markets and their sometimes uncanny ability to defy what would otherwise be considered "typical" market activities. Take Anderson Creek Club here in NC - it's in the middle of a basically rural (not by AI's definition tho) county of Harnett, but folks are lining up to pay $300k-$750k+ to own a home in there. Why? It's a guarded-gate, almost resort-like club with pools, nature trails, ponds and oh yeah, a Davis Love III golf course. Let a computer-wiz reviewer somewhere run the mean home price in Harnett County from some black-box hocus-pocus PFTA* AVM and THEN sign off on lending $700k to someone for a home here...It's fun at times, that's for sure. Even when you write them a book on the sub-market within your report, they ignore it for the numbers on their computer screen that came from God only knows where.

*PFTA - values that appear to be "Plucked From Thin Air" with no other real supportable basis

 

[REGALCAT]

I have done reports for Landsafe in St. Louis, Mo, they had a reviewer in Houston Tx, try to tell me that she knew more about my area that I lived in for 55 years.