The reason I write this appraisal blog is to provide valuable information about real estate appraisals and more importantly how it affects homeowners or would-be homeowners.

This year saw many industry changes for real estate appraisal and chatter from appraisers was at an all-time high. The main theme of all the changes as it relates to appraisers was more work and liability for them with little to no increase in income. If you’re not an appraiser, on the surface this may not interest you. Why you should care is these industry changes were going to translate into higher appraisal costs and longer turn times for homeowners or would-be homeowners.

  1. The first change that appraisers had to overcome was Collateral Underwriter (CU). CU is Fannie Mae ’s proprietary risk management tool provided to lenders and their business partners. Mike Turner of Turner Appraisal wrote a detailed article about CU and the potential hurdles.
  2. A few months later on May 8, 2015, the State of Illinois canceled Appraisal Management Company (AMC) registrations for over 70 of the 170+ companies due to non-compliance with the AMC Act regarding bond requirements. If you experienced delays on real estate appraisals this article will shed some light on the matter.
  3. The next hurdle to overcome was TRID. A mandatory 3-day waiting period was implemented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requiring the closing disclosure be given to the buyer at least 3-days prior to closing. The purpose of the waiting period was to allow the buyer sufficient time to review loan costs associated with borrowing money to make a purchase. This article talks about what may trigger a new 3-day waiting period
  4. New changes for FHA appraisals became effective 9-14-2015, after the consolidation of over 225 existing handbooks, mortgagee letters, and other policy documents. There were three main areas of concern and we have written an article for each of them.

While there were many industry changes that occurred this year, it didn’t amount to much in terms of widespread impact and growing pains are to be expected when it comes to change of any type.

What is on the horizon for 2016?

The 2 areas of concern are multiple rounds of interest rate hikes and affordability for first-time homebuyers. In the video below you will see the Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun address these issues (2:30 to 3:15 second mark).

Did I leave anything out or do you want to join the conversation? Let me know in the comments below.

Providing real estate appraisal services since 1999 with an array of experience in property appraisals that includes Divorce, Estate, Bankruptcy, Tax Appeals, Pre-Listings, Pre-Purchase, FSBO and more.

Our coverage area includes Chicago and the bordering suburbs.

For more information call us today at 773-800-0269.

Thanks for reading,

John Tsiaousis

Email This Post Email This Post