Appraisal Scoop

CAPS LOCK AND BOILERPLATE APPRAISAL, INC.

Thanks to the Jonathan Miller's Soapbox blog for this great post by Todd Huttunen.  Todd began appraising more than 20 years ago with a few years off in between to pursue a career in cabinet making. He relegated that to hobby status and is currently an appraiser in an assessor’s office.

His best friend dubbed him The Hall Monitor because of his rigidity and respect for rules. He offers Soapbox readers tongue-in-groove insight on appraisal issues. Today Todd suggests we all rip the Caps Lock key from our keyboard. …Click here for the his post.

Appraisal Survey Report from The National Association of Realtors Now Available

During August 2006, the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Marketing Research Department invited 86,777 appraiser members and recipients of the Appraisal Section of the weekly NAR ListServe message to participate in an online survey. Findings reflected in this report were collected from responses received between August 10th and 25th, 2006.

The goal of the survey was to understand how Appraiser members conduct their business, obtain appraisal industry information, and make decisions on their appraisal education and designations.

A total of 858 respondents participated in this survey. This number is a large enough response rate for answers to be considered statistically significant. At the 95% level of confidence, the statistical error is +/-3.33%.

To view the survey results, click here.

Take The ASHI Home Inspection Virtual Tour

Before a home inspector gives your home the once over, a virtual home inspection tour will give you a good idea where he'll go, what she'll look for and what you hope he or she doesn't find.

On the ASHI Virtual Tour you can click around the house to get inside the inspectors head. Click the little blue dots to poke into the components inspected, learn common problems found in each area and read the standards of practice employed in each area.

Click here for the full Realty News story: Take The ASHI Home Inspection Virtual Tour 

IL Carbon Monoxide Alarm Detector Act - Effective 1/1/2007

Beginning January 1, 2007, a new Illinois state law entitled "Carbon Monoxide Alarm Detector Act" goes into effect. The new law requires single family and multiple family residences, with few exceptions, to have at least one approved and operating carbon monoxide alarm within 15 feet of each bedroom.

Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas produced during incomplete combustion of fuels – for example, natural gas, LP gas, kerosene, oil, wood, and charcoal. The gas is lethal to humans if it builds up in the home.

The law states it is the responsibility of the owner of the structure to supply and install all required alarms, along with written instructions for alarm testing and maintenance. In the case of rental property, it is the responsibility of the tenant to test and to provide general maintenance of the alarm(s), including battery replacement, and to notify the owner of any defects in writing that the tenant cannot correct. 

Click below for additional information . . .

Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

If you follow network or cable news you probably believe that the real estate market has gone from unbridled insanity where buyers apparently losing all perspective, bid wantonly against dozens of other equally crazed buyers for the same house, stretched way above their means to purchase increasingly unaffordable houses which seemingly increased exponentially in value every hour to a market today where......nothing is selling!

And it made this dramatic shift in intensity and direction without ever pausing, for even a second, at equilibrium.

Click here for the complete story.

Haunted Houses.com - Muhahahhahah!

According to Stefan Swanapoel on Real Blogging, getting into the "spirit" of Halloween takes a little more effort each year!

Stefan says: "What I can tell you is that a fake spider, or cobwebs, or a bloody ax doesn't cut it anymore. Now it's animatronics, special effects, professional costumes, professional makeup and many live actors. The stakes of scaring visitors silly have been raised to an intensity that rivals Hollywood."

So if you are looking for a haunted house to visit this weekend go to http://www.hauntedhouses.com/ - they have hundreds and hundreds of houses listed across the country.

Click here for Stefan's full post.

Houses that Make you Go “Hmm”

If you like looking at weird houses (and who doesn't!) then Offbeat Homes is the blog for you!

Spherical tree houses, sewer pipe hotels, and the Cosmic Muffin are among the recent unique and downright strange homes discoverd by Ingrid Diaz.

A few of the site's categories include: Celebrity Homes , Eccentricities , Fairy Tale Homes , Homes That Float , Houses That Move, PreFab , Treehouses ,  and Urban

Casualty Loss Appraising

Casualty Loss appraising is cyclical, not a steady stream of business like loan production work is. Yet, it is a book of business that can be developed and can help even out cash flows when lender work slows down as it is doing now.

Earth, wind, flooding and fire issues can create opportunities. Below are some links that are referential.  Developing contacts that would be the source of business from these types of valuation needs, includes understanding the two main areas or sources of work in this area.

While my office is a general practice, doing all types of appraisals for all types of clients, there are some who specialize in doing appraisals on properties that have been damaged in one way or another. One of the first firms I knew of was Real Estate Damages, www.realestatedamages.com Check out their web site to see the range of things they are involved in. Their work might involve an individual property or an entire town that has been impacted by a sudden even, or negative event.

Click below to read more . . .

NCRC Files FTC Complaint Against Zillow

A coalition of community groups has filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission charging that Zillow.com, a real estate Web site that provides home-value estimates, is misleading consumers and industry professionals about the accuracy of its automated tools. Officials at Zillow have countered that the accusations "are groundless," and the company clearly explains the role and accuracy of its estimates at its Web site.

The complaint states that the coalition's audit found that Zillow's valuations, called Zestimates, "are accurate less than 30 percent of the time," while the site allegedly states or implies that values for "the home they are researching, the communities they are interested in, and for recent comparables is accurate to within 10 percent of value."

Click here for the full Inman News story.

Exurbia, a new term for Appraisers?

Exurbia may not be a term used by the appraisal community, but it has been around for 16-years or more. Maybe we should consider it? Finding Exurbia: America’s Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe  http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20061017_exurbia.pdf

I once took a SREA class Residential Application at the Univ. of OK, and a lady from AK used a word I had never heard of, one she made up, "Sural".   

She lived in a town of 2,500 that was 1 1/2 miles square, surrounded by open fields.  Anything in the central core, she called Urban, 1/4 to 3/4 miles out from the central city, she labeled Suburban, and anything on the outside edge of town, she called Sural, and anything out side of town was Rural.

How do you define Rural? In my area, I labeled Barstow Rural, until they widened the I-15 Freeway. Before that even, it was a remote desert town off all by itself in the Mojave Desert. A railroad town and a pit stop on the way from L.A. and Las Vegas.

When they widened the Freeway, commuters moved to town. Now most newcomers commute to the Victor Valley 30-40 miles away to work. Is it still Rural, or is it Suburban now? It is still well outside the 60-Mile Circle of the metro So. CA market area. It is more than 100 miles from L.A.

No, Barstow is not an Exurbia, by anyone's definition!  Click below  . . . .