When you don't think the valuation that you paid for is accurate you can spend some time and effort yourself to validate the results.

NAR's decsion to attack the HVCC via the NY Attorney General's Office and FHFA to bring appraisals more in line with sales contracts is not beneficial to the appraisal industry.

After the Savings and Loan crash in the late 1980's, appraiser licensing was put into place in 1991 by the federal government in an attempt to avert another banking disaster.  Here we are, however, in 2009 with a much larger banking disaster to deal with.  So clearly the original plan for appraiser licensing has ended in failure.

Most appraisal assignments direct the appraiser to form an opinion of the market value of a specific property. If you are familiar with appraisal definitions you know that most market value definitions indicate that market value is the “most probable price” that a market participant will pay for a property. So in most instances appraisers have to consider value as an anticipation of future benefits.

Since federally insured lenders now often don't need a full appraisal report, demand has strengthened for broker price opinions (BPOs) in many states. Appraisers have seen real estate agents getting valuation work that they assumed would belong to them, so a move is on to find an appraisal product that will allow appraisers to compete for the work.

Standard appraisal methods are generally sufficient to appraise "green" buildings, and a short discussion of some notable differences between typical building appraisals and "green" building appraisals has been outlined in the following paragraphs:

Until you have been involved in a litigation case that deals with the measurement of buildings you won't begin to appreciate just how little attention is often paid to the measurement process by builders, assessors and appraisal professionals.

Appraisers try to compare properties using uniform measurements, and area is an important physical characteristic of a property compared when land or buildings are analyzed.  Land area comparisons appear to be simplistic, until you consider why parcels sizes vary.

Home amenities like; flooring upgrades, landscaping, window treatments, city views, mountain views and gated entry do not add value like they once did.  Market participants are now often focused on the price per square foot of a home and less on its upgrades.