News By Edition

As is the Thanksgiving holiday tradition at Valuation Review, we reached out to appraisers, and others asking them what they are thankful for this year.

There were times of despair, for sure, with the COVID-19 and the delta variant cloud hovering over many businesses. Still, appraisers were resilient and maintained high levels of productivity.

Read on for more.

Veteran appraiser Tony Pistilli has seen and accomplished a lot over his last 30 years in the business. Recently, he moved to Accurate Group.

Valuation Review sat down with Pistilli to discuss this new chapter in his business life.

Read on for more of our conversation.

During a conversation with Valuation Review, Kevin Musick, the ClearValue company’s president and chief technology officer said- “despite the increase in availability of property data, a picture still says a thousand words.”

The goal is to provide credible and secure confirmation photographs taken by various types of property inspectors are taken at the right subject property, and at the time of inspection.

Read on to learn more from Musick.

BBG recently promoted two senior executives in a reorganization of its leadership team.

The company also appointed a chief technology officer.

Read on for more information.

JLL’s Valuation Advisory group recently announced it is expanding into the Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Pacific Northwest markets.

The company has hired experienced professional Robert Taylor as market lead.

Read on to learn more.

Mortgage Connect LP, a national mortgage services provider for the nation’s largest financial institutions, investors and servicers, recently announced Andrew Bough has joined the company as executive vice president, as well as head of valuations. The appointments are associated with the company’s appraisal management division, Valuation Connect, the company announced in a press release.

The Appraisal Foundation Board of Trustees recently named new members to the Appraisal Standards Board and the Appraiser Qualifications Board. The board also announced its new leadership for 2022.

Clear Capital has hired more than 350 people in 2021, with 170 jobs currently open.

The announcement comes as Clear Capital celebrates the 20th anniversary of its founding.

Read on to hear from company executives.

Recently, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced it is seeking comments on a notice of proposed rulemaking. This relates to what would introduce additional public disclosure requirements for the Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

StoicLane, a long-term growth platform making controlling and strategic minority investments in finance, insurance and real estate, recently closed on a majority stake in appraisal management company Lender’s Valuation Services (LVS). StoicLane and LVS intend to work together to drive innovation and growth in the appraisal industry.

SitusAMC has hired more than 1,500 employees to boost support capacity for both originations and secondary market due diligence. The expansion is expected to expedite the flow of loans into private-label securitizations.

The RealtyTrac Investor Purchase Report – Fall 2021 analyzes home sales data from ATTOM Data Solutions to determine the share of real estate investor purchases among all home sales, the median price for investor home sales compared with consumer home sales, and the share of cash sales among investor purchases.

Realty Trac Executive Vice President Rick Sharga reached out to Valuation Review to share this data, which is analyzed quarterly at both the national and state levels.

Read on to learn more numbers.

ForbesBooks author Tim Pagliara recently addressed the issue of the government needing to fill gaps for minorities and the middle class to access mortgages.

We expanded our discussion with Pagliara, founder, chairman, and chief investment officer of CapWealth, to the current market trends that need to be watched.

Read on to learn more.

Freddie Mac announced a new initiative to help renters build credit by encouraging operators of multifamily properties to report on-time rental payments to the three major credit-reporting bureaus. Presently, less than 10 percent of renters see their on-time rental payment history reflected in their credit scores, inhibiting their ability to access credit or obtain competitive rates for a range of financial products.

Embrace Home Loans announced that Barry Filderman, Masoud Hosseini and Bill Bray have joined its Rockville, Md., branch as senior loan officers. Branch Manager Elliott Bresler recruited the three mortgage veterans and plans to add more staff to continue building business in the eastern U.S. Embrace Home Loans originates loans in all 50 states.

In its October Insights Report, mortgage advisory firm STRATMOR Group revealed data that shows why lenders have found it nearly impossible to achieve suitable returns on their technology investments.   

October Research, LLC produced a webinar hosted by Valuation Review called “Keys for Operational Efficiency.

The program featured panelists Jared Preisler, DataMaster chief appraiser and product development director, along with Josh Walitt, veteran appraiser and principal consultant with Walitt Solutions.

Read on to learn how you can order your copy of the webinar.

Candor Technology has introduced an additional dimension to its loan engineering system: The Candor Metascore. The patent pending Metascore indicates the overall quality of a loan manufactured by Candor’s machine.

Valuation Review concludes its conversation with Appraisal Institute Government/External Relations Director Bill Garber, who expands upon the subject matter of appraiser trainees moving forward.

Garber also discussed the key roles regulatory agencies will play within the appraisal arena.

Read on for the conclusion to this story.

Is the glass half-empty or half-full?

CapWealth founder, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer Tim Pagliara, also a ForbesBooks author, answers that question and others in his article “Cooling or Collapsing? Key Factors to Consider About the Housing Market.”

Read on to learn more.

Reggora, an appraisal software company, announced Guaranteed Rate has selected its appraisal management technology to support the production of all loans requiring an appraisal. Proper Rate, a Guaranteed Rate Joint Venture, will implement Reggora’s software to streamline its appraisal process.

The COVID-19 pandemic is playing a big role in driving more golfers to hit the links this year, setting the stage for a revival of the nation’s golf courses, according to BBG Managing Director Lee Smalley.

The company executive reached out to Valuation Review to share his thoughts on the condition of golf courses in his article titled “Pandemic-Driven Demand Eases Golf Course Slump.”

Read on to learn more.

The personal-finance website WalletHub, in recognizing the number of lives lost during COVID-19, released its report “2021’s Safest States in America” comparing the states across 55 key metrics.