Valligent

[J Grant]

How does one know if the comps are the "best" if they don't verify them?

That would be up to appraiser. If appraiser feels the MLS and public records information is sufficient and accurate enough to conclude an opinion about the property comp without verifying than that is appraiser's judgment. While verifying a comp might be a requirement for certain appraisals, this is a review assignment not an appraisal, it is a SOW of limited part of a report regarding possible comp choices.

It means an appraiser has to use their judgement about what scope of work they need to identify which comps are acceptable/not acceptable/best comps . If appraiser feels verification is needed to do that than they should verify. Depending on data they may feel a need to verify information on all the comps, some of them, or none in order to fulfill assignment. That is how I view the assignment at least from information I have from reading about product on BB, I have not seen the client engagement letter.

 

[ucbruin]

How does one know if the comps are the "best" if they don't verify them?

In the world of appraisal, real estate/auto/jewelry/art/etc., can anyone say with a 100% certainty that any comparable(s) is the best, even if they are verified? (We do know that the term "verify" is subjective).

We work in the magic realm of opinion(s), assumption(s), 3rd party data .....

 

[J Grant]

Verification means talking with a party about terms of sale or features of a property, verifying in itself does not mean the property is a good comp for a subject.

If an appraiser selects a lousy comp and verifies it, when other better comps were available, it still is a lousy comp choice despite being verified.

I have talked with parties about comps and they flat out lie, I know it by looking at online sources /interior photos and in some cases I inspected the property a few months ago for an appraisal and what they tell me is not true. (which is kind of scary considering we don't get to inspect every property we ask people about)

Parties can be reliable or not reliable for many reasons; sometimes they mean well but are ignorant, other times they don't want to disclose, other times they can provide misleading information, other times they present good information. Appraisers have to reconcile what information verifying returns vs what they see or learn from other sources.

 

[CANative]

How does one know if the comps are the "best" if they don't verify them?

Define "verify" in context with USPAP rather than Fannie Mae.

 

[CANative]

Say you look at the grid (like they say they want). The subject is 1000 square feet, 2/1. The comps are 1) 1050 sf, 2/1 located two blocks away; 2) 1500 sf, 3/2 located 1.5 miles away; 600 sf 1/1 located 3 miles away. You do an MLS search and find comp 1 but you also find a comp that is 1100 sf 2/1 located 6 blocks away and a 900 sf 2/2 located a quarter mile away. So you conclude that there are at least two "better" comps and provide the information for those.

I think that's all they want.

I did one of these for Rels about 8 years ago. It was a crap. It was two hours before I figured out they were hosing me. But I decided to finish it. When I hit send it was gone and I could not access it to make a record for my work file. Never again. My concern on this project is making sure there are appropriate certifications and methods of producing an appropriate workfile.

 

[Michigan CG]

 

[CANative]

You still did not define "verify." Verification in this case could simply mean the MLS listing.

 

[Joe Flacco]

30 minute assignments all day everyday sounds like no fun.

 

[CANative]

In "my other job" I might do 10 or 15 like this... before lunch. But I'm not working in the role of an appraiser. Still, it's kind of fun.

 

[J Grant]

The standard refers to developing an appraisal, this is a review assignment of a limited portion of work.

One might argue that if the reviewer selects different comps than the OA they by extension are offering their own range of value opinion and thus they have done an appraisal. I happen to think that this is so, even though it is not the intention of the assignment. The term verification may or may not refer to talking with a party, perhaps it is if assignment or client demands it as a requirement. If an appraiser feels they need to talk to a party to get enough information about a comp to consider the comp reliable they need to do that.