New URAR Demo

[TC]

I felt bad for those employed at photo shops. However, they were not professional license people who apprenticed for 2 plus years and had to get licensed and pass tests , to qualify to work in a photo shop. . They could move on to other service jobs paying about the same.

Prior to starting my own biz I worked at a fairly large local appraisal company. We did a huge volume and used a local photo shop exclusively. The owner hustled and had a ton of appraisers and real estate agents as clients. He would deliver and pickup to his best clients. Once the digital photos was in full swing his clients dropped like flies. I drove past his place a year later and it was closed. The last time I saw him he was a teller at my local bank.

 

[Sadie]

The real answer is really quite simple. The UAD was redesigned because that redesign was long overdue. If there is an important issue with the home (a needed repair or a special feature) the reader generally has to go on a scavenger hunt to find the information in the report, because it could be anywhere, and that is just silly given today's technology.

I find the "eliminate appraisers" conspiracy theories are quite interesting, especially given the history of appraisers. Did appraisers switch to forms software to create reports because of some appraiser conspiracy to put typists and forms and worms out of business? Did appraisers switch to digital photography because of some conspiracy to put one-hour photo shops out of business? Or, was all that just a result of evolving technology?

I do not disagree that change needed to happen, I do disagree with the way it happened. 1 hour photo went away because there was reduced need for physical photos EVERYWHERE due to technology. The need for collateral evaluation has not gone away, but the motivation for a quicker cheaper (not better) evaluation has increased.

 

[Sadie]

Back when we were assured that appraisers completing these hybrids would be required to be "geographically competent" I had some hope, now I see that they're going to change the meaning of that term so that a multistate licensed "valuation professional" sitting in a cubicle somewhere can complete them anywhere in the country, all hope was lost. Letting lending institutions value their own collateral is a terrible idea, and the fact that the industry is headed in this direction is an epic failure of the regulators. A "valuator" sitting in a cubicle somewhere has no "independence", they have "a boss" who expects to see the results that they want. Between that scheme and easily tweaked AVM assisted lending decisions, the fox will definitely be in charge of the hen house going forward. "Internal auditors" at these organizations will make sure all the books look good as well, and no one will know how much risk is out there being offset by worthless derivatives again. An amazing amount of effort being expended towards bypassing appraisal "friction" in the lending process, which means we were doing what we were supposed to be doing.

“When I was FHFA Director, Fannie and Freddie were very upfront about their view that the appraisal process was just friction to be smoothed out. They compete with each other for originator business, and they want to squeeze friction out of the process. They don’t see a lot of value to the appraisal process. (Mark Calabria, former Director of the FHFA)

Also: ( Ed Pinto, Senior Fellow and Codirector of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)“When the market finds something like this, they’ll figure out how to game it,” Pinto says, explaining that the industry learned this in the late 1990s with the development of automated underwriting. Pinto sees the same logic at work with waiver expansion. In both the past and present cases, what drives the loosening of requirements is FHFA’s goal of increasing affordable housing, he says. “That’s what FHFA said, and it’s the same driver of the stuff that happened in the 1990s and the early 2000s. It was the same reason. The same goal that got them into trouble last time. Financially motivated individuals in the mortgage business, enabled by FHFA’s affordability goals, have incentives to find a loophole with these types of automated processes. but by the time the gaming of the system was figured out, the GSEs were already in conservatorship. If I were at FHFA, I wouldn’t be doing this. I think it’s too risky,” Pinto says

 

[chad hampton]

Regorra should lose their AMC licenses just based on that ad alone. Recruiting individuals to do work that their license does not permit.

 

[Overimprovement]

Appraisers shot themselves in the foot with the appraisal is needed yesterday mentality..... no substance/ boilerplate nonsense which led to inaccurate observations and valuations. Why not use an Uber driver and an AVM?

The sad irony is these same appraisers who undercut the value of a full 1004 appraisal are now the exact same ones taking the few that are left for $250 each.

 

[Overimprovement]

Money that used to go to one hour photo shops, forms and worms, companies that made paper maps, companies that made and serviced photocopy machines, etc., now goes someplace else. Is that by coincidence or design?

There is a difference. The appraisal industry benefitted from the advent of digital photography. It did save the appraiser time and money, and frankly was better for the clients as well. But the appraisal industry did not instigate this change. It merely benefitted from it.

However, the hybrid, the waiver, the PDC, AVMs, the desktop by an appraiser 5 states away who couldn't tell MO from MS from MN from MI, and the new UAD which will data mine to a degree like never before...were all instigated by the GSEs and big players strictly for THEIR benefit. Which is their prerogative (I am a free market guy still at heart). But in this instance, actual appraisers benefit...ZERO.

[Soapbox] Really less than zero because these things are essentially destroying the industry as we know it--and all you CGs out there better believe you are in the cross hairs too. The only thing keeping most commercial appraisers going is the same thing that CoStar and local MLS's thrive on--control of (or at least limited access to) the data. But that is quickly being eroded as well. How many MLS's do we think will still exist in 5-7 years? I offer my thought--zero. The players will force the issue. AI will continue to demand all the data it can get, and anyone owning any sliver of access to it will not be able to turn away its sale to the highest bidder.

And for those saying divorce, estate, private, and eminent domain work will always be there, I offer this--if the power brokers in the trillion dollar mortgage industry can get comfortable with an appraisal report where no licensed appraiser has ever set foot in the state housing the subject, what is stopping the judicial system and John Doe down the street from getting comfortable with it too? May take a few years longer (may not), but I promise it will be there.

I liken this industry to a posh housing development that will soon be between 3 new regional dumps, directly under a newly created major airline flight path, and one block from 2 new maximum security prisons in a state with frequent escapes. Some understand supply and demand, and are selling their home now while there are still buyers. Some think "it will all be fine" and are planning a large and already functionally obsolescent addition this winter. Some are renting their homes out at any price to anyone who answers their ad, further decreasing the values of the remaining homes.

Personally, I sold this spring. I think the only ones encouraging appraisers to stick it out are the ones knowing that SOME appraisers will still be needed to feed the machine.
[/Soapbox]

 

[Overimprovement]

Here’s a current advertisement running on FB:

Wow--competitive pay "We will pay you when you do work". No conflicts--really? If they don't disclose that 2" crack in the basement wall in their listing, or when showing suckers er, I mean clients the house, what makes ANYONE think they will snap a pic of it during their 5 minute "inspection"? What a joke.

 

[Fernando]

When I started, I used polaroid camera. Those films were expensive and quality not that good.
Then I used a local photo store across street and was cheaper.
Then Costco developed film and I would take like 3 photos of comps (back then I gave 3 same reports to MB).
And then digital photos came and I printed them and send the reports to lender.
Now I don't need to print and send via internet.
Also good because I can add MLS photos into report.

 

[Charles West]

Somebody should organize appraisers across a loose national network by becoming their spokesperson, somebody with a brain, social media skills, and presence who will take the concerns of appraisers to the public. Existing appraisers could send this person $10 or whatever a month so they could blow their day job off to become a pain in the lender's ***. Follow our Korean colleagues, raise a little Hell.

 

[Fernando]

Somebody should organize appraisers across a loose national network by becoming their spokesperson, somebody with a brain, social media skills, and presence who will take the concerns of appraisers to the public. Existing appraisers could send this person $10 or whatever a month so they could blow their day job off to become a pain in the lender's ***. Follow our Korean colleagues, raise a little Hell.

I know you're talking about Nando but he has too many skeletons.