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Fannie Mae & Hamp Thomas – Quotes & Opinions
What can Fannie Mae do to prove they want to work with the appraisal industry?
A choice? Invisible stairs with no double dipping…
Fannie Mae’s Secret Mission? Eliminate the Appraisal Industry
massive devastation to appraisers across the country
The VA and ANSI
The Veteran’s Administration is all about helping veterans obtain home loans and offer a full range of services directed at aiding our veteran population; they protect those who have protected us. The VA provides assistance with home loans all across the country and...
ANSI Measurement Standard 2021 Frequently Asked Questions
New book with a Condo disclosure, rules on measuring manufactured homes, and questions from over ten continuing education classes with appraisers from all across the country. The most up to date information from Fannie Mae and industry experts on measuring residential...
ANSI and “Who Knows What”
Before 2022, appraisal reports contained an assortment of square footage details reported from different sources. The subject was measured by the “who knows what” method with different methodologies used all across the country. The comparables were a combination of...
ANSI
Starting April 1, 2022 Fannie Mae begins mandating the ANSI standard. This is a great time to read the standard, read a book, or take a class to refresh your knowledge of ANSI. The biggest mistake we've found to date is that people make a one line disclosure to show...
California Association of Realtors® advises agents they should NOT measure any house
An attorney from the California Association of Realtors® advises agents they should NOT measure any house. The main reason is fear of liability. On this advice we absolutely agree! Where we disagree, is that I say Realtors® should be “responsible” for obtaining...
Is ANSI for Appraisers Really the Answer?
Is ANSI for Appraisers Really the Answer? The real estate industry has a square footage credibility problem. ANSI has been out since 1996 with no new pages added and very few changes. In a constantly changing industry with new home styles and designs, change is a...
ANSI 2021
The ANSI Update is finally out. You can learn all about the changes at www.AppraisereLearning.com and have your choice of a forty-minute video with just the meat and potatoes of the changes ahead, or join me October 5th, 2021 for a live virtual CE class from 12-4...
Holy Mackerel!
Holy mackerel!!! You guys are top notch! I am truly impressed! I had no idea I would get such a package. Thank you very much. Thrilled to be a part of such a special group. Thank you Conrad! Always nice to get notes like this...
One Language of Real Estate
Let’s face it – measuring residential square footage will never be an exact science. But that’s okay. In my state (N.C.) they suggest that agents have a five percent margin of error when reporting finished living area. To me, a professional real estate expert, who is...
The “Pet Rock” of Real Estate
Big Data. We’ve all heard about it, seen it advertised, and no matter where you look, it seems to be the answer to every situation in the real estate industry. Even when the problem is totally made up, throw around words like “big data” and “technology” and it gets...
American Perspective 2020
I attended two meetings at our small church in rural North Carolina, with riders from three counties over begging us to join the cause and fight for our freedom. All our neighbors attended and the men all voted to join the fight, whatever it took. It was not seen as...
Tax Records, Square Footage, & the Risk to Homeowners
There is a long standing myth that the tax department provides the “Official Record” for square footage. It took off in the early nineties when tax departments first went online. This misinformation has now grown to a nationwide belief and this misconception causes...
Another nail in the coffin for appraisers. Death to consumer protection and mortgage investment security.
In one swoop of the pen, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC) Board of Directors, decided that home mortgages will no longer need to obtain an appraisal for loans under $400,000. With this increased threshold, apx. 72-75% of all home mortgage transactions...
MiniSplits and GLA
So, you find a large Bonus Room above the garage and it is heated and cooled with a large hotel type system mounted in the wall. You wonder to yourself, is this space the same as if it had a traditional heat pump with vents in the floor or ceiling? The owner tells you...
Texas Square Footage Case a Huge Loss for Consumers
When it comes to Realtors® and square footage, they have the public totally fooled. The mystery over measuring square footage allows them to price homes based on inaccurate square footage, using their all-powerful price-per-square-foot formula, and no one seems to be...
Time to Start Suing Realtors® for Inaccurate Square Footage
Yes, it’s time for real estate agents to start accepting responsibility for providing accurate square footage details to all prospective buyers, other agents and to appraisers who all depend on the data they provide. No agent is required by law to measure a house....
Inspectors, Home Appraisals & Hybrids, Virginia Appraisal Board
Inaccurate square footage is already an issue that hurts the home-buying public. The lack of a nationally mandated measurement standard creates confusion and disagreement among all those that provide this information for the public. The inconsistencies among agents...
Bifurcated – Another Nail in the Appraisal Industry’s Coffin
Bifurcated appraisals are just one more step in a master plan to eliminate appraisers from the mortgage lending process. At the end of all the discussions, any changes to the appraisal industry are not about improving the process but about who profits from that...
Advertising Ideas
For Agents or Owners: CMA, BPO, AVM? I just want to know the fair value of my home. Too many real estate agents don’t measure homes any longer and when they create a value for you, they base it on the square footage in tax records. Guess what? The square...
The Impact of Square Footage on Hybrid Appraisals
Let’s talk about walk through inspections, measuring homes, and completing all aspects of an appraisal assignment we put our signatures on. We can all see the ever growing wave of Hybrid Appraisal products. So, let’s talk about the one number at the start of every...
Big Banks & the Fleecing of the Appraisal Industry
Big Banks are tricking appraisers into providing the very information they perceive they need to put appraisers out of business. There are countless new programs coming out and made available to appraisers, so they can fine-tune the formulas and help to make the...
Fannie Mae – Here’s Your Waiver – Here’s Your Sign
Swim at your own risk. No life-guard on duty. That’s what Fannie Mae is telling consumers. This runaway train called Big Data looks like it will only be stopped by the next mortgage crisis and big banking bailout. How many billions of taxpayer money will it take,...
FDIC – loans below $400,000 are not important?
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve are proposing to eliminate the appraisal requirement on certain home sales of $400,000 and below, increasing the appraisal threshold...
The Measurement Standard Hypocrites
Hypocrites, yes what else should we call them? There’s a great deal of talk about protecting the consumer, but home buyers are being cheated every day by the absence of a nationally mandated measurement standard. No opinion, it’s a fact. The National Association of...
The 1 – 2 Punch – Ending the AMC Nightmare and starting the path to Realtor® Education
The AMC dog and pony show has been going on for the better part of a decade. Appraisers have been called out for every problem associated with a real estate closing. Ever silent is any talk of better educating Realtors®. They are the ones with the most power in the...
Consumer protection is lost in the rush to commissions
We hear all about low appraisals, but we never seem to hear about homes that are flat-out over priced, often by an agent who wants to prove they are smarter than everyone else and will take advantage of any unusual feature or circumstance to push the value beyond any...
The Missing “Standard”
Every week I talk to appraisers in different parts of the country and the conversations are almost always the same. Square footage errors are a problem everywhere, some places worse than others. Every appraiser seems to understand the problem and many of them complain...
Tax Values Just as Accurate as AVMs?
The battles rage on to decide who will take over the automated valuation process. There are big companies lining up to take over this massive profit arena. And, make no mistake, it’s all about the money. At the end of every discussion about AVMs verses traditional...
Realtors® Giving Too Much Power to RPR®
“Since then, we’ve become RPR’s biggest fans. It has helped grow our business because it has given us more credibility.” A recent article talks about the benefits of using the Realtor® edition of online home valuations. This growing trend is frightening for home...
Hello world!
Welcome to the World of Residential Square Footage. Because in every residential transaction, somewhere between listing and closing, size matters! Getting the square footage measurement by the best known "standard" in the world is just a smart decision and may save...
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