News By Edition

A recent proposal by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) to raise the threshold at which credit unions must obtain appraisals for commercial real estate transactions from $250,000 to $1 million.

According to the report, this would create an environment where the playing field between banks and credit unions would not be very level, the American Bankers Association (ABA) said in a comment letter to the NCUA.

Read on for more information about this proposal.

Valuation Review continues its examination of the recent proposal by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) to raise the threshold at which credit unions must obtain appraisals for commercial real estate transactions from $250,000 to $1 million.

The American Bankers Association (ABA) outlined several concerns in a letter sent to NCUA.

The Appraisal Institute (AI) submitted a letter to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Brian Montgomery in response to the FHA’s requirement in certain situations of a second appraisal for its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program.

AI asked that the FHA re-evaluate eligibility requirements for placement on the FHA appraiser roster.

Read on to learn more.

Appraisers do spend a lot of time in their automobiles traveling from one assignment to the next.

Can a non-cluttered car be an asset to the appraiser in terms of organizing both thoughts and tools needed to complete the job? Dustin Harris, “The Appraiser Coach,” believes so, and shared his thoughts on this subject with Valuation Review.

Read on to find out what he said.

A new leader is in place.

Stephen S. Wagner, of West Lafayette, Ind., began his one-year term as president of the Appraisal Institute (AI) on Jan. 1.

Read on to learn more about the new leader of AI, and be sure to look for Valuation Review’s exclusive two-part interview with Wagner in the coming weeks.

LRES recently announced the promotion of Audrey Clearwater to senior vice president of operations. Read on to find out more about this appointment and how it enhances the overall day-to-day business of the company.

Class Valuation announced that Michael Detwiler, former senior managing director at Accenture and co-founder of Mortgage Cadence, has joined as an equity partner and CEO. Read on to find out more about this appointment.

Class Appraisal announced that the company will be changing its name to Class Valuation to better describe its expanded focus. Read on to learn more about the company name change, and what additional services it will be providing for appraisers.

The courtroom war between Amrock, formerly Title Source, and HouseCanary is far from over.

A motion for a new trial was filed by Amrock in the Bexar County, Texas, state court back on Nov. 13, 2018, based on new evidence of an alleged fraudulent scheme.

Valuation Review obtained HouseCanary’s response to Amrock filing this motion with the court and will have subsequent interviews with legal representatives from both sides. Read on to learn more.

At the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) request, a federal district court in Maryland issued an order.

This order was to temporarily shut down what the commission says is the largest overseas real estate investment scam it has targeted.

Read on to learn more about this scheme, and what the FTC had to say.

What are key components regarding the obtaining of specific home loans?

A residential mortgage default rate forecast, authored by Dr. Michael Sklarz, Dr. Norman Miller and Anthony Pennington-Cross, outlines what drives mortgage loan effectiveness.

Read on to learn more from this report.

LoanLogics has updated its LoanHD Loan Quality Management platform to make it easy for lenders to run automated checks to validate data prior to loan delivery through Fannie Mae’s EarlyCheck application on loans sold to Fannie Mae. Read on to learn more.

Millennials were not deterred from purchasing homes in October, as the market continued to tighten with rising interest rates and average loan amounts decreasing, according to the latest Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker. Read on to learn more from Ellie’s monthly report.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced that it is making several improvements in its Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) system and other appraisal-related functionality.

Valuation Review reached out to the FHA/U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) team for insight as to what this all means for appraisers.

Read on to find out what we were told.

Federal Housing Administration changes to its Electronic Appraisal Delivery system Appraisal Logging screen and its Appraisal Case Transfer screen in FHA Connection originally were set to take effect Jan. 28, but have been postponed as a result of the government shutdown, which ended Jan. 25. Read on to hear more from the FHA.

Valuation Review continues its conversation with Metro-West Chief Appraiser and Compliance Senior Vice President Greg Stephens.

In Part II of this story, Stephens discussed selecting appraisers, E&O insurance and the continuing importance of personal relationships.

Read on to find out more.

The year ended with owner and appraiser perceptions of home values slightly moving in different directions.

The difference, though, remains less than a half-percent nationally, according to the latest Quicken Loans Home Price Perception Index.

Read on for more numbers from this report.

SingleSource Property Solutions has added a new member to its executive team. Read on to find out this person’s identity, and what the hire means for the company moving forward.

Valuation Review continues its conversation with FirstClose executive Jorge Ponce, the company’s director of product and vendor management.

Ponce shared more insights on hybrid valuations.

Read Part II of this story to find out what additional information we learned.

Valuation Review continues its conversation with 2019 Appraisal Institute President-Elect Stephen S. Wagner for more of his thoughts as to what AI provides to appraisers.

He also addressed more topics that need to be on the minds of those in the valuation profession during 2019.

Read Part II of this story to find out more of what Wagner had to say.

A report from the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Institute’s special report titled “Commercial Real Estate Finance Disruption: Deja Vu or Something New?” identifies the sweeping changes taking place.

These changes are within CRE finance and their potential to cause the next major disruption in the industry.

Read on to learn more findings from this report to affect commercial appraising.

Ellie Mae has hired a new senior vice president of enterprise sales, the company announced. Read on to learn the identity of this new Ellie Mae executive.

Nations Valuation Services announced the integration of appraisal management software from Anow. Read on to learn more.