Written by Nathan Thomas on July 20, 2006
Last week Washington Mutual announced it was cutting some 900 jobs, including hundreds in its in-house appraisal department, in favor of outsourcing appraisal management to two Appraisal Management Companies, LSI and a First American unit. The transition is underway and will proceed "throughout the remainder of 2006." Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on July 20, 2006
You're hearing and reading ideas all over the place for diversifying your practice and attracting new business. If you're feeling a pinch the best place to start, 100 percent of the time, is with the business you already have and value. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on July 6, 2006
Last edition we asked you to write the Appraisal Advocacy Coalition if you have experience being placed on a lender's do not use list mistakenly or for reasons unknown. The extent of your response was, well, disheartening. Because so many of you wrote in. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on June 16, 2006
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an interagency unit devoted to money laundering and other financial criminal activity, reports periodically on official complaints or reports of suspicious activity and the nature of the complaint. Last month the agency reported that mortgage fraud allegations increased 41 percent from 2004 to 2005. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on June 16, 2006
We're thrilled that we've been named a Top 25 Mortgage Technology Vendor by SourceMedia's Mortgage Technology magazine. The list was published in the June issue. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on May 25, 2006
What do the words Gramm-Leach-Bliley mean to you? Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on May 9, 2006
Effective July 1, USPAP will no longer include a Departure Rule, nor anything called "Complete" and "Limited" appraisals. In their place will be a comprehensive new Scope of Work Rule, a set of minimum standards for all appraisal, appraisal review and appraisal consulting assignments. Are you ready? Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on May 9, 2006
Fitch Ratings, which provides investors with opinions as to the creditworthiness of the companies and other entities they invest in, let the air out of AVM advocates in 2004 when it began to discount "non-full appraisal values" by 10-15 percent across the board in selected "weak" markets. This month the company is revising its discount policy to be more AVM- or investment-specific and expanding it nationwide. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on April 19, 2006
Recently, counsel for the Appraisal Institute produced and distributed an article, "Copyrighting Appraisal Reports: Can You? Should You?", which called into question the ability and wisdom of appraisers copyrighting their reports. Since we've been in the lead convincing appraisers to protect their rights, we felt we needed to respond. Read more...
Written by Nathan Thomas on March 24, 2006
Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry. So you do both. You laugh when you hear that AVMs are more accurate than appraisers when you read, in the Sunday (March 19) New York Times: Read more...