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The buzzword making its way through the industry is “exception processing,” according to King. Essentially, this new appraisal review technology can cut through the clutter and get right to the troubled areas. Appraisal reviewers won’t have to read through four, five or six pages to find a problem. The problem will be presented to them via the software and then the human appraisal reviewer is able to investigate from there. 

The business appraiser hired by the Water Authority was not impressed with Joe and Leon’s credentials as businessmen. On cross examination, when asked why two businessmen would pay $2 million for a plant that was, in his opinion, worth only $140,000, he stated directly in open court that he thought that they just didn’t know any better. I, on the other hand, was impressed with the fact that both Joe Smith (who is illiterate) and Leon Jones (who dropped out of the eighth grade) had made millions of doll

Tales from a forensic valuation consultant continues ... The attorneys hired a competent machinery and equipment appraiser who was willing to testify that as of the date that LJS was forced out of business the machinery and equipment in place and in service was worth about $1.2 million. As a real estate appraiser, I was willing to testify that the land and buildings in use contributed another $800,000 to the overall value of the enterprise, making up the approximately $2 million that LJS paid for the facili

DataQuick announced a big move into lender services space with the acquisition of Rels Title. The data solutions provider had been slowly moving in this direction after TPG Capital acquired it in January 2011, and this purchase expands DataQuick’s capabilities to serve its growing list of national lending customers. The transaction is expected to close within 30 days. 

LJS Grease and Tallow is one of my favorite cases, mostly because of the wonderful characters involved, but also because it revolved around the battle between the appraisers. LJS Grease and Tallow was a rendering factory in Carroll County, Ga. Like most of these places, it was well off the beaten path in the country on Snake Creek. The Carroll County Water Authority condemned the plant in 2001 because it wanted the land as a part of the Snake Creek Reservoir. And that's where our story begins...

Last year we had more than 800 appraiser professionals sound off in our industry survey. This year is shaping up to be even bigger. Take the survey and weigh in on industry issues like appraisal fees, AMCs, valuation technology and much more. This is your chance to stand up for your industry and be heard.

A new measure shows the typical amount of time it takes to sell a home is shrinking, and for traditional sellers it is now in the range of historic norms for a balanced market but well below the cyclical peak reached in 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The median time a home was listed for sale on the market was 69 days in July, down 29.6 percent from 98 days in July 2011. The median reflects a wide spectrum; one-third of homes purchased in July were on the marke

CoreLogic released a new analysis showing that 10.8 million, or 22.3 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity at the end of the second quarter. This is down from 11.4 million properties, or 23.7 percent, at the end of the first quarter. An additional 2.3 million borrowers possessed less than 5 percent equity in their home, referred to as near-negative equity, at the end of the second quarter. Approximately 600,000 borrowers reached a state of positive equity at the end

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported that a key milestone was reached in the July Refinance Report — more than 519,000 loans were refinanced through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) since the beginning of this year. This already tops the 400,000 mark from all of last year. 

The July Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services (LPS) showed that national foreclosure inventories remain stable — and near historic highs — while delinquencies, down 30 percent from the January 2010 peak, continued to decline slightly. The report also highlights the link between negative equity and new problem loans. 

Platinum Data, a provider of comprehensive collateral valuation technologies, announced that it has hired quality assurance and fraud prevention expert Lisa Binkley as senior vice president. 

Clear Capital released its Home Data Index (HDI) Market Report with data through August. Top metro markets continued to advance over both the rolling quarter and year. While each of the highest performing 15 metros saw quarterly gains over 4 percent, seven markets posted double digit yearly gains. On average, 9.2 percent in yearly gains were supported by short-term average quarterly gains of 6.6 percent. On both counts, progress continues to be made by the strongest metros. 

CoreLogic released its National Foreclosure Report for July that provided monthly data on completed U.S. foreclosures and the overall foreclosure inventory. According to the report, there were 58,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in July 2012 down from 69,000 in July 2011 and 62,000 in June 2012.

Three co-conspirators were found guilty of implementing a mortgage fraud scheme through wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and IRS-Criminal Investigation announced. The co-defendants submitted false appraisals for some of the properties. One defendant supplied the appraiser with inflated values of comparable homes or omitted information concerning the home sales so the appraiser would overvalue the current home. 

Twenty-five percent of Americans indicate that full, accurate disclosure of all fees accompanying a mortgage offer is the most important attribute they would seek if they were to use a mortgage shopping website, according to a recent Harris Interactive survey of 2,214 U.S. adults aged 18 and over that was commissioned by MortgageMarvel.com in June.  

Underlying market conditions are far from stable; continued downtrends in home prices often require appraisers to apply appropriate market trend adjustments to recent comparable transactions. Moreover, in many distressed markets, it is also likely that some or all available recent transactions are distressed sales. Since the parties to distressed properties are often unique, and distressed properties are typically sold at a significant price discount, which may or may not represent underlying market trends,