Appraiser Income

If you are like me, you spend a lot of time driving around doing your appraisal work. This is a good show! Especially their coverage on advocacy!

http://www.voiceofappraisal.com/

“Voice of Appraisal” is a show designed to deliver the most up to date news and information for the working real estate valuation professional. The show provides top analysis of real estate trends and issues that affect appraisers nationwide.  Our no-nonsense approach to appraisal, real estate, banking and politics creates a cutting edge program that provides an insight into the appraisal profession that is seldom heard.

The past 25 years of appraisal organizations, affiliations, and designations have left our industry splintered and broken.  We have become a group too caught up in our own egos and titles to see how our profession is now crumbling before us.

We have divided ourselves, and our house will not stand!

We don’t need any more regulations to hinder us, or unions to protect us, or dwindling organizations to speak for us, or financial institutions to threaten us.

What we need is a voice, a movement, to take back our industry, and control our own destiny.

This show exists to offer such a voice to this lone wolf profession, that real estate appraisal has now become.  Welcome to the movement!

When the Republican Party first put forth its plan to reform the country’s tax laws, housing experts worried it could put a damper on home-buying activity. Now that the GOP’s tax plan is the law of the land, some fear those predictions may be coming to fruition.

A new report from analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York examined the drop in home-sales activity between the fourth quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2018. The figures in the respective quarters were adjusted for any seasonal factors impacting the housing market at those times of year. In that period, new home sales fell 7.6% nationwide — with the Northeast and West regions sustaining the most substantial drops in sales activity.

New Federal Reserve Bank of New York findings suggest that the recent changes to the federal tax code have contributed to the slowdown in home sales that occurred throughout much of last year.

Bank of America is committing $5 billion to help boost homeownership for “low- to moderate-income and multicultural homebuyers and communities” across the country, the bank announced Tuesday.

According to the bank, it plans to commit an additional $5 billion over the next five years to its Bank of America Neighborhood Solutions program, which “will help more than 20,000 individuals and families thrive through the power of homeownership.”

And as part of the program, Bank of America is rolling out a host of new loan programs and options, including grants of as much as $10,000 to help a borrower close a loan.

Happy Birthday to US! Hope everyone is having a great 4th with friends and family!

YOU better be taking the day off. Yeah, I’m talking to you. You know who you are.

NEW YORK–Representatives from government housing agencies said they are making progress in breaking down barriers that discourage mortgage lenders and servicers from working with them.

FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery, speaking here at the MBA National Secondary Market Conference & Expo, said FHA is at an “important crossroads.”

“It’s clear that our regulatory compliance standards discourage depository institutions from participating as FHA partners,” Montgomery said. “I strongly believe this discouragement has a huge impact on FHA products.”

Montgomery said he is committed to evaluating policies to encourage more FHA lending, citing efforts to increase transparency and ease regulatory burdens. Last week, for example, FHA announced changes to its loan level and annual certifications and defect taxonomy; in March, FHA announced changes to its TOTAL Scorecard.

WASHINGTON (May 16, 2019) – Continued economic expansion, rising home sales and an increase in wage growth that is on par with home price growth are some of the expectations for the second half of 2019, according to speakers at today’s residential real estate forum at the 2019 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

Dr. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors®, delivered his 2019 midyear forecast, which predicted changing future migration patterns as buyers search for more affordable markets. Inventory in the U.S. has grown for eight straight months on a year-over-year basis, and Yun expects that to continue.

“Home sales should be much stronger based on the economic fundamentals of jobs, interest rates, population and consumer confidence,” said Yun.

repost from http://appraisersblogs.com/special-interests-killing-consumer-property-value-protection

Before the ink was dry on FIRREA 1989, special interests were snipping away at it. Originally proposed field review requirements in FIRREA drafts for 1 in 10 appraisals would have made the Great Recession (TARP) impossible. Now those same interests are stripping away at the last vestiges of consumer and taxpayer property value protection. The formal appraisal. The MINIMUM level of protection that should be insisted upon.

Dear Ms Kahng:

My name is Mike Ford. I am Vice President – Special Projects; & Chairman of the American Guild of Appraisers National Appraiser Peer Review Committee; AGA#44, OPEIU, AFL-CIO.

I am writing concerning the upcoming June 20th hearing addressing “What’s Your Home Worth? A Review of the Appraisal Industry”

There is currently so much deliberate misinformation about real estate appraisers and appraisal needs in America, that we believe it is critical the House Committee and any related Sub committees hear from recognized national experts that are currently practicing independent appraisers. Further, those appraisers should be recognized professionals with no hidden agenda. Respectfully they should not be separate self-serving appraisal management company owners or managers. Nor should they be national appraiser franchisees circumventing AMC laws, that also directly benefit from reduced restrictions and standards for professional appraisers. Professionals nationally recognized for their efforts and contributions in preserving appraisal integrity and professionalism should be sought.

Real estate appraiser wins invasion of privacy lawsuit against CoesterVMS

It’s been a rough couple of months for Brian Coester, and it doesn’t seem like things are turning around just yet.

Coester once ran CoesterVMS, one of the largest appraisal management companies in the country. But in late 2018, word of financial troubles began to circulate, and appraisers were complaining that they weren’t being paid. By February, the AMC had officially closed its doors.

Now, Coester will likely be forced to cough up damages as a judge ruled against him Monday in a lawsuit brought on by Mark Skapinetz, a subcontracted appraiser who worked for CoesterVMS.

The U.S. economy has been sending mixed signals in recent days, but the nation’s top economists say there’s likely more harm than good.

Escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China, slowing growth around the world and waning fiscal stimulus are all acting as a headwind to growth, according to the 20 leading experts polled for Bankrate’s Second-Quarter Economic Indicator survey. The majority (80 percent) of respondents say that these risks are more heavily tilted toward the downside, while just 10 percent say they’re tilted toward the upside — down from 19 percent in the prior quarter’s survey.

“Monetary policy has overly tightened, and fiscal stimulus will dry up by the end of the year,” says Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes North America. “Add in trade fears, decaying housing and manufacturing sectors, global weakness, and geopolitical tensions, the result is definitely more downside risk.”

The U.S. economy has been sending mixed signals in recent days, but the nation’s top economists say there’s likely more harm than good.

The Appraisal Foundation President David Bunton testified before the Congress at a hearing entitled, “What’s Your Home Worth: A Review of the Appraisal Industry.”

Highlight video:

To learn more about Dave’s powerful defense of professional appraisers and the importance of appraisals, click on one or all of the options below:

• Read Dave’s opening statement
• Read Dave’s written testimony

Complete Video starting at 19.22

• [If you watch the hearing, it starts at 8 mins 40 seconds. David’s testimony begins at 19.22] 

THIS IS A MUST LISTEN! WE NEED TO ALL GET INVOLVED IN PROTECTING OUR PROFESSION! ~ Bryan