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News By Edition
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Valuation Review Edition
July 30, 2012
In the July 30, 2012, edition of Valuation Review, It’s time for the appraisal industry to come together and speak out with a unified voice. Creating or joining an appraiser coalition is the first small step to making giant leaps for the industry. Also in this edition, the National Association of Home Builders talks appraiser communication, an appraiser pleads guilty to fraud scheme and MountainSeed launches a new evaluation program.
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Valuation Partners releases STATS, a valuation alternative
Posted Date: Monday, August 27, 2012
The latest product from Valuation Partners, a nationwide provider of real estate valuations, is an appraisal report alternative to broker price opinions (BPOs) and automated valuation models (AVMs) prepared by professional real estate appraisers. The USPAP-compliant Statistically Tested Appraisal Technology Solution (STATS) leverages data integration and mapping technologies that auto-populate the appraisal report and significantly reduce time spent on administrative tasks.
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The appraisal data that connects us
Posted Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The work that the MISMO Property and Valuation Services Workgroup has done to build out the details and definitions in the Version 3 Series has been an effort to more definitively represent the data needs of appraisers to improve their processes as well as improve reporting to support. This approach is dramatically different than Uniform Appraisal Dataset providing appraisal reporting results in a standard format.
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Appraiser coalition dos and don’ts
Posted Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2012
No one said starting an appraiser coalition was going to be easy. It takes grit and passion to pull a group up by its bootstraps — to go from nothing to full blown coalition powerhouse. Here are some Dos and Don’ts when approaching a new organization.
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Appraisal Data Unchained
Posted Date: Monday, August 20, 2012
The influence of data and technology has improved our personal lives and our businesses in many ways. For the residential real estate appraiser, many of the technological improvements are actually driving new, more sinister phenomena: form-filling instead of in-depth analysis and scope elasticity. Many appraisers are also seeing a significant increase in number of questions, requests for follow-up information or further explanations and various other customer service type considerations.
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Editor’s Message: Overcoming hang ups
Posted Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2012
As I started my editorial internship at Valuation Review after a rigorous year at the University of Dayton filled with exams, classes and beer, I was unsure of what to expect. I was a 21-year-old woman who did not even know what an appraiser did. One of the first stories I was assigned was a short piece on the new UAD compliance — a daunting task for an intern whose real estate industry experience was limited to HGTV’s “House Hunters.” I quickly began researching the topic and contacting
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With a little help from appraising friends
Posted Date: Monday, August 13, 2012
Valuation Review has written a great deal about appraisers who are facing mountainous legislation and regulation challenges, but now it’s time to stop talking and start doing. It’s time for the appraisal industry to come together and speak out with a unified voice. Creating or joining appraiser coalition is the first small step to making giant leaps for the industry.
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National bank agrees to $175 million for alleged lending violations
Posted Date: Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Wells Fargo Bank agreed to pay out more than $175 million in a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The federal government alleged that Wells Fargo “engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers in its mortgage lending from 2004 to 2009.”
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CFPB Webinar airing this Thursday
Posted Date: Monday, July 23, 2012
October Research LLC is airing Part 1 of its 2012 Dodd-Frank Webinar Series this Thursday, July 26. Members of the mortgage, real estate and settlement services industries are urged to attend this 60-minute training.
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June existing-home prices rise again, sales down with constrained supply
Posted Date: Monday, July 23, 2012
Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, declined 5.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million in June from an upwardly revised 4.62 million in May, but are 4.5 percent higher than the 4.18 million-unit level in June 2011.
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HUD accepting applications for entities to purchase troubled mortgages
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Qualified entities interested in purchasing pools of severely distressed loans formerly insured by the Federal Housing Administration can now submit applications for the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program, an expansion of an FHA disposition program that sells pools of defaulted mortgages headed for foreclosure and provides the opportunity for the purchaser and borrower to avoid a costly foreclosure.
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Veros finds continued acceleration in housing recovery
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Veros Real Estate Solutions, an industry leader in enterprise risk management, collateral valuation services and predictive analytics, has announced its VeroFORECAST real estate market forecast for the 12-month period ending June 1, 2013. Released quarterly, the report is showing that the housing market’s gradual recovery on a national level is steadily building.
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HPI shows U.S. increase of 1.1 percent in April
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Lender Processing Services Inc., a provider of technology, data and analytics for the mortgage and real estate industries, announced that its LPS Applied Analytics division updated its home price index with residential sales concluded during April 2012.
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Regional Review: So. Cal. home sales up from year ago
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The number of homes sold in Southern California rose above a year earlier for the sixth month in a row in June, the result of robust investor demand and significant sales gains for mid- to high-end homes. The continuing pattern of fewer foreclosures re-selling and more activity in pricier coastal counties helped the region’s median sale price climb to a two-year high, a real estate information service reported.
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Webinar: Dodd-Frank program trains on key areas
Posted Date: Monday, July 16, 2012
Dodd Frank Update is hosting a three-part Webinar series over the next few months, designed to provide training on very important areas industry members are facing this year under the Dodd-Frank Act and its regulations. Topics such as new provisions from the CFPB and QM/QRM are included.
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Equator hires new vice president, human resources and administration
Posted Date: Monday, July 16, 2012
Equator appointed Mira Wolff as the company’s vice president of human resources and administration. Wolff was selected to help develop and maintain an infrastructure that supports the company’s plan for continued growth. In her executive position, Wolff will work alongside other company executives to oversee a wide range of functions.
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Lenders Compliance Group integrates Veros’ CIA solution
Posted Date: Monday, July 16, 2012
Veros Real Estate Solutions announced that Lenders Compliance Group, a full-service mortgage risk management firm, will be utilizing its collateral integrity analysis (CIA) product for pre-funding and post-closing audits, early payment defaults, high default due diligence, as well as warehouse bank and portfolio reviews.
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Negative equity decreases in first quarter of 2012
Posted Date: Monday, July 16, 2012
CoreLogic released new data showing that 11.4 million, or 23.7 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity at the end of the first quarter of 2012. This is down from 12.1 million properties, or 25.2 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2011. An additional 2.3 million borrowers had less than 5 percent equity, referred to as near-negative equity, in the first quarter.
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Sound off on appraisal fee separation
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2012
On July 9, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a 1,099-page proposed rule that combines the final proposal for the Good Faith Estimate and Settlement Forms and the new requirements as detailed in the Dodd-Frank Act, along with extensive guidance regarding compliance with those requirements. What does this mean for the appraisal industry that hopes to see more transparency through a separation of fees?
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LenderMobile adds new features to lending app
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2012
LenderMobile launched several new features for its LenderMobile+ flagship application in response to user feedback, including a new Social Invite feature enabling loan agents to invite Realtors or borrowers who also are using the iPad app to start a loan transaction in real-time. This new feature creates a powerful lead generation tool for loan originators.
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National foreclosure inventory remains near all-time high
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The May Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services shows that the nation's foreclosure inventory remains near all-time highs, with 4.12 percent of all active mortgages in the foreclosure pipeline in addition to the 3.2 percent that are 90 days or more delinquent but have not yet begun the foreclosure process.
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Nationwide Appraisal & Settlement Network announces mobile website
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Nationwide Appraisal & Settlement Network announced the immediate release of its mobile website for clients and vendors on the go. Nationwide pledges, “No more waiting for the appraiser to get to an actual computer or to find the time to call and update files.”
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Appraiser pleads guilty to fraud scheme
Posted Date: Tuesday, July 10, 2012
A real estate appraiser pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to his guilty plea, the appraiser appraised a number of properties on behalf of purchasers who were seeking financing through a mortgage brokerage company operating out of an office on Gough Street in Baltimore. From April 2004 to April 2008, at the request of a co-conspirator who controlled the mortgage brokerage company, the appraiser prepared at least 17 fraudulent appraisals for $4,306,950 in loans originated at the
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Valued Veterans: veteran-owned AMC will use FNC technology to grow its business
Posted Date: Monday, July 09, 2012
Mortgage technology company FNC Inc. announced that the appraisal management company, Valued Veterans, will use FNC’s flagship product to better serve the nation’s major residential real estate lenders. Valued Veterans, a service disabled veteran-owned appraisal management company serving the mortgage finance industry, joins more than 80 other U.S. financial institutions currently using FNC’s Collateral Management System.
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MountainSeed launches new evaluation program
Posted Date: Monday, July 09, 2012
MountainSeed Appraisal Management LLC launched a new program that makes it easier for licensed and certified appraisers to offer commercial evaluations to community and regional lenders. Real-estate evaluations are valuations of real property prepared in connection with typically low-risk transactions that qualify for one of three specific appraisal exemptions provided in the federal bank regulators’ appraisal regulations.
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Webinar: It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when you will exit the business
Posted Date: Monday, July 09, 2012
In a 60-minute instructional Webinar, two professionals from the title insurance industry will coach participants on what they should be doing now in order to prepare for, what for some is, the biggest business transaction of their life — selling their title business. This Webinar is unique in that it gives title insurance professionals fundamental building blocks on how to strengthen their business currently in order to get the most out of a future valuation.
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LPS announces new loan origination platform
Posted Date: Monday, July 09, 2012
The LendingSpace technology platform will augment LPS' other origination technology solutions, which include Empower, a platform used by mortgage lenders with complex system configuration and customization needs and PCLender, which is used by mortgage lenders, credit unions and community banks that leverage more standardized technologies.
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Regional Review: Las Vegas home sales
Posted Date: Monday, July 09, 2012
Las Vegas-area home sales rose to a six-year high for the month of May as the number of transactions above $200,000 increased sharply from last year, making up for fairly flat sales for lower-cost properties. With foreclosure resales at the lowest level since late 2007, the median sale price rose above a year earlier for the second consecutive month, reaching a 17-month high, a real estate information service reported.
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Completed foreclosures down from last year
Posted Date: Monday, July 09, 2012
CoreLogic reported that there were 63,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in May 2012 compared to 77,000 in May 2011 and 62,000 in April 2012. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 3.6 million completed foreclosures across the country. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.
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