I just read the "Flawed Appraisals Hurt Home Sales, Slowing Housing Recovery" article displayed  on the Fox Business News site.  It sounded to me like Mr. Nielsen of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has taken up the torch that was carried by NAR's President early this year to force appraisers to conclude values that work better for the benefit of "everyone."

I can hardly wait for the day when the government dictates to appraisers that they can not use short sales and foreclosures in a market like Las Vegas that is dominated by them.  It will be a day not unlike the one we have already lived when government stepped in to distort the mortgage market by using Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to "help" low income individuals purchase homes with little or no credit.  We all know how that plan worked out . . thanks again Barney Frank.

So today it is seriously being proposed that we appraisers turn a blind eye to the thousands  of bank sales and sales made by individuals in foreclosure and in so doing artificially increase the value of the remaining homes and new homes to stimulate the market.  I would ask, "why not just have the government assign values based on the cost of construction?" At least that method of "fixing" prices does not ask all appraisers to play "make believe" and thus become complicit in the lie.

It was my understanding that appraiser licensing was established to protect the public, but if the government subverts the appraisal process to bolster prices it will destroy an appraisers ability to express an unbiased value opinion based on the market and destroy the purpose of licensing. » Read More

Ok, its transition time again.  January 1, 2012 and appraisers are all supposed to comply with the updated Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP).  I know there are very few of you who have taken a course on it, I see a lot of future offerings but not much in the way of pre-January 1, 2012 educational course offerings.

So I guess there are a lot of appraisers out there (like me) who have paid for the $ 60 .PDF version, downloaded it and studied its contents.  Not.  I would love to see the download count.  My bet is that there are thousands and thousands of appraisers who won't get around to dealing with the USPAP update between now and the new year.  Why should there be, its not like appraiser preparation is completed well in advance of the effective change date.  What I would like to know is who puts an effective date of January 1, 2012 out there with only a few months of transition time and a document ready only a few months before? 

I'm sure that if you were not trying to make a living you would have followed all of the early change discussions about things like the revised definitions of the terms "Client,""Extraordinary Assumptions,""Hypothetical Conditions," and "Exposure Time."  You were, however, busy trying to put food on the table.  Sorry, but that is not going to be an excuse that will fly well with the state regulators or the attorneys if you get hauled into court.

The sad state of the system is such that you have to bite the bullet and read the document.  Take a course when it is finally approved and offerred, but don't think that you can escape the responsiblity of writing "this report complies with USPAP 2012-2013" when if fact you don't know what the document says.

Have a great holiday season. » Read More

Well its been over 100 days since I purchases Win Total 2011.  I must admit that I purchased it at what I believed was a reasonable price.  How do I know that it has been 100 days since I purchased the program?  It's simple, my software stopped working inexplicably after I completed what I believe was a certain fixed number of appraisal reports, and a la mode, Inc. in its infinite wisdom, invited me to pay to receive technical assistance.  The "customer service" guy at a la mode told me "you get ZERO technical support without paying."  They say I'm not being forced to do anything, but if I don't choose to become a paying "member" then I'm screwed.

It has always been my experience that if you remove a program entirely from your computer and reinstall it from the original CD-R, it is going to work.  No so with Win Total 2011.  I changed absolutely nothing on my Windows 7 PC and it just stopped running and a fresh removal and reinstall got me nothing, zip, nada.  How many times has that happened to me in the last say 20 years?  NEVER !

Besides being a long-time appraiser I have a degree in computer science, believe me when I tell you that it is my opinion that my cesation of program service was a planned event.  The program stopped working after a time or use certain because I believe that a la mode wants a payday, and I am having no "fix" until they get their money.

So I guess that I have to go back to the old reliable ACI program on Computer #3.  I liked the a la mode program, even though it took a long time to transition and create some template reports.  My 2009 ACI program has never just stop working or failed to reinstall for no particular reason, so there really is no comparison.  The Win Total 2011 sucks.

PS: After I sent "poor" responses in on an a la mode customer questionnaire I had the CEO contact me.  He told me it was ridiculous to say that there are "black helicopters" in his program.  He acted like he was going to help me fix my problem, but of course he didn't.  I reinstalled the program on another Sony Windows PC machine, used all the appropriate ID and activation information and guess what . . the program still doesn't work.  I guess that the price wasn't that reasonable after all.
» Read More

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