Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Faulty Appraisals Are "Common Knowledge"

As expected, the appraisal industry is warning congress today. "Faulty appraisals are still dictated by interested parties, the schoolyard bullies of real estate. It's common knowledge that if an appraiser doesn't play the game and 'come in' at whatever value is needed to close the deal, the bullies will take his lunch money. And he had better not tattle.' said Alan E. Hummel, SRA.

"The public..needs to be more aware of the menace of mortgage fraud to their home purchases, the largest investments of their lives. Sadly, all Americans pay the price for this miserable performance, bearing the cost of investigations and financial failures."

"The appraisal organizations say the appraisal standards in H.R. 1295 are our lesson plan to do better." Before you buy that, read this report.

12 Comments:

At 9:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fantastic blog Ben. Keep up the great work.

 
At 10:05 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

These appraisers are our heroes. Let see how this further changes crowd psychology.

 
At 10:08 AM, Blogger desi dude said...

ben

post this some time.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/24/BAGTFCTOL61.DTL

In pricey, desirable Lafayette, for example, school Superintendent Linda Weesner saw a decrease of some 100 students this year.

"And for a district of our size, 100 is a significant decline," Weesner says. "The prices everywhere are escalating so fast that it is very difficult for young people. It really is a significant issue.


The above was told to me by a realestate agent in LA suburb also.

Similar thing is happening in diamondbar school district. They have started busing children from out of the district to fill up the vacancies!

 
At 10:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Im not sure I would call them heroes. The appraisers may know that it is going to hit the fan soon and they are partly culpable in this. They may be trying to shift blame away from themselves - just some cya going on imo.

 
At 10:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Everyone be sure to nominate and vote for this blog in the next Koufax Awards (they are the annual awards for best blogs).

Ben has been doing a terrific job and should be recognized for it.

 
At 10:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

10:20 -- where do you find the Koufax awards, and in what month is voting done?

 
At 10:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Similar thing is happening in diamondbar school district. They have started busing children from out of the district to fill up the vacancies!"

Do you have any more info about this? Where are they busing the students in from? The reason I ask is that in the 60's and 70's, when busing (to increase diversity, I believe) began, housing costs *plummeted* in the Pasadena California neighborhoods and lots of the "white folk" felt chased out by the "black folk". It was the beginning of a rather tense situation where parents, who wanted to keep their children in "exclusive" neighborhoods felt betrayed that their schools were now infiltrated with "outsiders".

I know that Diamond Bar's school district was attended by fairly well off families in the early 90s - sometimes it's small things like this which torpedo a district's reputation among the "elite" who then choose to send their children elsewhere (and thus reduce funding). It would be interesting if the housing bubble had this effect.

 
At 10:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My bad, the Koufax awards are primarily intended for political-type blogs.

I'm going to do some research on the various awards and will post links to appropriate ones.

 
At 10:58 AM, Blogger desi dude said...

"Do you have any more info about this? Where are they busing the students in from?"

I heard it from a realtor/agent who lives in Diamond bar area at a party on Saturday.

She mentioned neiaghtbouring districts like pomona, chino hills etc.

 
At 11:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about a "Best Blog" Prize in Alfred Nobel's Name?

 
At 12:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let us not forget. Greenspan talked about "irrational exuberance" in 1996 and then kept the party going til 2000.

S&P is currently at 1997 levels.

 
At 5:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tony Soprano is in a new business. Real Estate Appraisal.

 

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