New USPAP Q&As published March 6, 2025

[J Grant]

Today's VA assignment was a very rural 1700 sf house on 20 acres. Oh yeah, it was also a log home. Oh, one other thing. It only had two bedrooms. I had one log home on 10 acres 17 miles northeast, one frame home on 25 acres 15 miles northwest and another frame home on 12 acres to the northeast. I did the best I could with what little I had to utilize.

I understand that a log home and then a wood frame home are the most similar construction comps, but why not include a CBS or brick house on a similar site of acreage in the market area? Just for more support and more indicators -as a fourth of fifth sale comp. (if such sales exist - in a somewhat equivalent price range )

 

[CGinMN]

“Competency ensures that the appraiser can identify the problem, determine the
appropriate scope of work, and develop credible assignment results, but experience is not a method or technique.
Therefore, for assignment results to be credible they must be objective and developed when performing the assignment. Assignment results cannot be developed from an appraiser’s knowledge and experience which was gained outside of the assignment.”

USPAP ends up being a bunch of semantical games. It is obfuscation posing as explanation. The same people must write the selling guides.

 

[NC Appraising]

That is all fine when there are actually good comps available, but sometimes when appraising a proeprty in a extremely rural area, there may not be any good comparable sales. As I tell my underwriters, sometimes on an extremely rural appraisal they only thing the appraiser can do is to select the least bad comparable sales due to a lack of sales data.

Maybe fannie and Freddie should not lend on every property?

Since the powers that be changed the rules and we only get mostly complex orders, maybe they should stop lending on them.

We are getted screwed becuse of it. Can't prove it, but I get the feeling when complex orders get uploaded and gets a bad score our order volumes decrease. Higher chance of getting rejected. Less orders and a higher chance of getting sent to the board for trying to fit a square peg through a round hole.


Maybe the gses need to change the certs?
1004
4. I have adequate comparable market data to develop a reliable sales comparison approach
for this appraisal assignment.

 

[Mark K]

In Federal Courts, the opinion testimony of an expert witness is not allowed to be introduced into evidence unless the experts opinions are based upon sound scientific methodology...it is not enough for an expert witness to simply base his or her opinion on their experience. This standard came from the Daubert case, which resulted in an amendment to Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. By the way, many state courts have similar rules of evidence regarding expert testimony. Thus, a competent judge will not allow an expert to render an opinion that is based on nothing more than his or her experince with no else to support the opinion.

Rule 702. Testimony by Expert Witnesses​

A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of an opinion or otherwise if the proponent demonstrates to the court that it is more likely than not that:

(a) the expert’s scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will help the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue;

(b) the testimony is based on sufficient facts or data;

(c) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and

(d) the expert's opinion reflects a reliable application of the principles and methods to the facts of the case.

maybe so, but in local Superior and Circuit courts adjudicating real estate issues, where most appraisers would be found, the above does not apply.

Judges make the rules in their courts; they always have and always will.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

The ironic thing, given the nature of this thread, is that the other appraiser had far more experience than I. He was appraising when I was in elementary school.

The pre-licensing appraisers were more likely to base their estimates upon their own insights and knowledge for sure. Support is paramount for sure. But I get the feeling FNMA wants an exact answer - a single data point "proof". The problem with those old guys and some of the newer ones is the tendency to not update what was factual in the past. I know appraisers who used $40 SF adjustment for 20 years - right thru the Great Recession and beyond. I had a trainee who had worked for another appraiser where she said they basically used "the book" - Fireplaces were X, SF adjusted by X per SF, age was 2% per year and you adjusted age to make the adjustments the smallest. I am sure there are still appraisers doing that.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Maybe fannie and Freddie should not lend on every property?

Maybe appraisers should not attempt to please FNMA on rural properties and eschew such assignments. I did that 25 years ago with FHA. After a nightmare in a tiny county (population about 18,000) and they insisting I not go outside the county...well, no new construction sales period. I cannot help that. And I did use sales from an adjacent county. I had to. There were no other new sales and darn few older ones in the county.

 

[TerryRohrer]

One has to wonder about the timing of this release, mid-cycle and all. Seems to mesh with the increasingly frequent directives by the GSEs to increase referrals to state boards, plus mimicks their demands for support all of a sudden. Me thinks TAF "stakeholders" have far more input into appraisal standards than do nonstakeholder appraisers.

The notion that statewide HPI indices trump on the ground appraisers' judgement rooted in local market analyses bolsters the growing appearance of rapidly devolving valuation standards.

 

[Mark K]

I was once involved as an expert witness in a case where I opined a site value of $900,000 - based on recent sales on the same street and one street over.

The other appraised stated that he found no site sales, but "based on his experience" the site value was $600,000.

Care to guess what value the judge went with?

I would say that this involves more a lack of competence than an abundance of experience.

 

[Mejappz]

One has to wonder about the timing of this release, mid-cycle and all. Seems to mesh with the increasingly frequent directives by the GSEs to increase referrals to state boards, plus mimicks their demands for support all of a sudden. Me thinks TAF "stakeholders" have far more input into appraisal standards than do nonstakeholder appraisers.

The notion that statewide HPI indices trump on the ground appraisers' judgement rooted in local market analyses bolsters the growing appearance of rapidly devolving valuation standards.

TAF is operated by unethical stakeholders. Besides the GSEs, no organization is as dangerous as TAF. I've been saying this for quite some time, but they need to be removed.

 

[CGinMN]

Comparing differences in utility is often done solely using subjective judgements and logic due to a lack of evidence.

Subject site size: 43,560sf
Comp site size: 46,000sf
Adjustment: $0

Subject room count: 9/4/2.1
Comp room count: 8/4/2.1
Adjustment: $0

Subject amenity: 8 x 10 wood deck
Comp amenity: 10 x 12 paver patio
Adjustment: $0