Can I Reproduce? Please? Why won’t they teach me how to reproduce? We hear of a “reproducibility crisis.” What is it? Who cares? How does it affect me? And finally – Do we reproduce properly in the appraisal process? Depending on the author, the scientific method can be broken down into four parts, or five […]
Recent presentations and articles on “Big Data and Appraisal” universally say that big changes in technology and analytics are affecting appraisal. What I don’t hear is: What can I do about it? Will I be able to work in five years? Will our appraisal organizations be around? If there is a place for me, what […]
What does it mean “Can the profession be saved?” Does anyone else care except us? The second question first. Who might care? Clients who have developed a trust for you and who are comfortable with the traditional ways of doing things. There is a group of us and of them who like doing things as […]
Why should they trust me? Trust me. I am an appraiser. I am trained. I have experience. I have high ethical standards – and a government-issued license which says so! What more could you ask? What more could you ask? To answer this question, let’s look at what the client needs and what is the […]
Why does a hybrid appraisal work better? What are the benefits? Who benefits? Who pays? A hybrid appraisal, as it has been proposed, separates the field work from the desk work. The assumption is that an appraiser is good at filling out the forms, while another “cheaper faster” person can do the property inspection. Also, […]
We read articles and advertisements on how to prove an adjustment. Is this possible? How wonderful it would be. To prove an adjustment, just push a button and bam! Out comes the correct answer. How could we have we missed this? Of course, if such a simplistic and exact answer was possible – anyone could […]
Vintage appraisal focuses on a point value opinion. In reality, clients need help with estimating collateral risk, or investment potential. Risk or reliability, if measured, is the uncertainty of the analyzed result, or the opinion of value. Lenders, investors, portfolio managers today are aware of the power of today’s technology. They need a measure of […]
A “hybrid” appraisal is a new name for where the property inspection is separated from the analysis and appraiser’s certification. It is faster and cheaper and. . . This is Part 5 of a (soon to be, so far) six part discussion of Hybrid Appraisals. Part One, Two, Three, and Four are behind these links. […]
An opinion of value is just that. Everyone has one. Asset value is wanted for one of three reasons: to measure risk, forecast profit, or to achieve fairness. Mostly the clients are collateral lenders, investors, and regulators/litigators. An appraisal is an opinion of value by an appraiser acting in appraisal practice. There are other opinions […]
Hybrid Appraisal, Part VI Is it possible that Lo-Brid or even No-Brid appraisals could be even faster and more cheaper? Hybrid appraisals have been hyped as being a “modernization” of the appraisal process. While the appraiser still fills out the “Fannie Mae” form, the actual property visit is done by another person (with as yet […]
Is the sale price the best indicator of value for appraisers? A recent study[1] includes a graph which shows that some 90% of appraisals hit the sale price exactly, or were higher, while only some 10% were below the sale price (when the sale price is known). Is this a bias on the part of […]
Credible— USPAP (Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice) says an appraisal must be credible. The word ‘credible’ is used some 82 times in the Standards themselves (although used repetitively in the same context using identical words most of those times). Then an additional some 103 times in the Advisory Opinions, mostly re-quoting the first 82 […]
The body of a letter to the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services about systems reform. Appraisal reform or Appraisal industry reform? It is critical to understand that ‘appraisal’ does not equal ‘valuation’, or risk analysis, or anything else. It is a precise definition of a nebulous product. The current U.S. House Committee on Financial […]
If we had an Appraisal Inspection Standard, how would it look? To frame this question, we need to look at what we have today regarding inspections, and what is really needed in the world. Let’s look then under common United States specifications. What we have today is left entirely up to the appraiser. The only […]
How does price validation differ from your traditional appraisal opinion? One of the arguments against the value of appraisals is that appraisers almost always just land on the sale price. How does this happen? Why? There are some obvious answers. The market system works, so the sale price should be near “market value.” Pressure exists […]