Appraisers' Free Forum

On the City-Data forum somebody posted this:

Just saw this on our local Craigslist. X'd a couple of details for discretion's sake:

"Hi, I need someone to take photos of a home in X. This is for a driveby appraisal I am charging the bank a very low fee for. I only need three to four photos of the exterior of this home. I would need these photos by this Sunday afternoon, September 13th. I can pay $15 for this job through Palpal or a check. Please let me know."

Here is the ad on the Chicago Creais List:

Need Someone to Take Exterior Pictures of a Home - $15 (Highland Park)
Date: 2009-09-11, 1:36PM CDT
Reply to: sale-pe64n-1369517027@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

Hi, I need someone to take photos of a home in Highland Park. This is for a driveby appraisal I am charging the bank a very low fee for. I only need three to four photos of the exterior of this home. I would need these photos by this Sunday afternoon, September 13th. I can pay $15 for this job through Palpal or a check. Please let me know.

Thanks,
Steve Simon
Simon Realty Group
stevesimon326@msn.com
630-890-7653

What is wrong with it?

Something doesn't seem quite right, these words stick out.

This is for a driveby appraisal I am charging the bank a very low fee for.

If one were indeed a dishonest appraiser attempting to get photos, would they really post those words? Any chance this is an agent or MB just trying to "create" something to support their accusations about long distance, sloppy appraisers. If I were the slob in question and needed photos, I think I would word the ad "photos wanted for exterior of home for insurance purposes or something that wouldn't sound so obvious, but then again maybe the ad is true and the guy is really that stupid and corrupt. Anyone willing to test that paypal account with a donation? I'm much too cheap.

This may be a real estate broker. I did a google search on the company name listed. The data that popped up said it was a real estate broker with 2 employees.

Probably doing a cheap BPOs and don't want to add miles onto their cars. I'm sure they produce verrrrrrrryyyyyyyy reliable reports, especially when they do not have to see the properties.

tel wrote:This may be a real estate broker. I did a google search on the company name listed. The data that popped up said it was a real estate broker with 2 employees.

Probably doing a cheap BPOs and don't want to add miles onto their cars. I'm sure they produce verrrrrrrryyyyyyyy reliable reports, especially when they do not have to see the properties.

If the culprit is a mere broker, then is it an appraiser's true concern? Sounds like a good mission for one of the zealots in the WTF, sort of like pitching a snake in a hog lot, who loses is never in doubt, but who gets the largest piece is debatable.

Senior Jefe wrote:

tel wrote:This may be a real estate broker. I did a google search on the company name listed. The data that popped up said it was a real estate broker with 2 employees.

Probably doing a cheap BPOs and don't want to add miles onto their cars. I'm sure they produce verrrrrrrryyyyyyyy reliable reports, especially when they do not have to see the properties.

If the culprit is a mere broker, then is it an appraiser's true concern? .

I believe so. This guy did not identify himself as a broker. He said he was doing a drive by appraisal for a lender giving the impression he was an appraiser.

Anybody want to bet whether he got a licensed or maybe even a certified appraiser to take the pics?
I don't care about who took the pics, but the appraisal stuff bothers me in a real estate context, since the term belongs to us.

Turn him in.

Where is he? I'll do it.


EDIT:
I turned him in to the IL folk and told him I turned him in. So, I expect rather than reforming he'll get all pissy, but Anne can handle that part of it.

If it is an appraiser doing drive by's on, say, pre-foreclosure properties, part of the SOW could be 3rd party contemporaneous exterior photos. This could be fully disclosed and agreed to. For several years, a friend of mine has owned a business that provides occupancy reports for major lenders in a hand full of states. This sounds like a perfect hybrid product for him to offer to his clients.

I am reminded of situations when MLS photos are used in a report for practical reasons. A practical reason, being no access without trespass, a garden party in progress, whatever. Most appraisers assume the worst case & they are probably right half the time.

Why not offer to do the photos, get your $15 and then watch the properties in MLS or public records? In a few months or less you will have your answer.

rogeryodamilt,

You're late to the party. Turns out the guy is a broker talking about doing drive-by APPRAISALS. He can't do that becasue his license ain't right or the term appraisal is generic. Either way one of those is the problem we now have.

Edd, in MN, the term Appraisal is reserved for appraisers in the context of offering and reporting a real estate valuation product to a customer. So, I was aware of how the statute attempts to reserve use of a word already firmly in the public domain.

If the Craigslist guy is trying to communicate quickly and efficiently with a customer, I think it is OK for him to use the term appraisal, as the public understands the term in the generic sense you mention. The audience is not prospective appraisal customers.

Innovation often looks good to a customer that saved a nickel and like corruption to the not so competitive competitor. It brings back fond memories of a discussion I had at a party in the '70's with a newly minted U of MN law student graduate.

Of course, I brought up the argument about attorneys not advertising fees for a-la-carte services and wondered aloud if he thought the so called "ethics" argument used to thwart such competition was really good for our system? He gave the standard line (the ethics argument), which unraveled within a year. The newbie attorneys finally had gained a way to crack into established practices market share.

Now, if we could only get a little tort reform. Maybe an alternate judicial system for civil matters that people could voluntarily opt into by signing and recording a declaration.....

Mentor wrote:If the Craigslist guy is trying to communicate quickly and efficiently with a customer, I think it is OK for him to use the term appraisal, as the public understands the term in the generic sense you mention. The audience is not prospective appraisal customers.

You might be right (I won't admit it-not me), but it seems to me we have tried mightily and failed to distinguish the word Appraisal. Actually I don't know what else the guy did to complain about, and you are diluting that.

Maybe the problem actually is that most appraisers are not very useful and newbies do need to devise ways "to crack into established practices market share." Doing that is supposed to be healthy for the economy according to some theories, especially if appraisals amount to nothing more than BPOs on Fannie forms.

If we look at it from the perspective of the disenfranchised appraisers and wannabes then where is the line and what do you want to call appraisals? Maybe we could call them "expert opinions of market value." Is that too much?

Mentor wrote:..................................................................................................

I am reminded of situations when MLS photos are used in a report for practical reasons. A practical reason, being no access without trespass, a garden party in progress, whatever. Most appraisers assume the worst case & they are probably right half the time.

................................................

I am just a slow learner and cannot wrap my hands around the following:

An appraiser certifies they inspect comps from at least the street. A MLS photo is used because: No trespassing sign is posted and a photo of the comp COULD NOT be taken/gotten from the street, so did the comp get inspected from at least the street?

If you cannot see it how can you inspect it from at least the street and use it in the appraisal?

If you can see it does your camera lense not have the ability to "see" it also?

Why do I have a difficult time understanding this?

Am I the lone wolf on this?

Am I the lone wolf on this?

I doubt it, but you are making the whopping big assumption that the assignment is developed and reported based upon a 3/05 GSE report paradigm.

In MN, the administrative rules say the appraiser has to at least drive by the comps unless it is disclosed otherwise in the report.

USPAP does not require exterior inspections of the subject, let alone the comps.

I have not made myself familiar with the administrative rules of many states, so YMMV.

Edit: Excuse my reply above BRCJR. An appraiser should depict the level of observation that was possible from the street. Rarely are all exterior angles of improvements viewable from the street. In normal situations, appraisers get but a sample of exterior maintenance and design. Fleshing out what was viewable from the street and dumping it on the UW along with available MLS photos doesn't seem to me to be in conflict with the cert. boilerplate.

The boilerplate says "I have personally inspected the interior and exterior areas of the subject property and the exterior of all properties listed as comparables in the appraisal report." IMO, if you look at the MLS photo personally, you have inspected the exterior of the improvements. I would prefer a walk-around film clip with audio notation, but whatyagonna do?

They should have made cert #8 clear by saying, I have personally observed from the street or closer, the exterior improvements of the subject property, wind, sleet snow or rain notwithstanding, got out of my car to take photos.

BRCJR wrote:....An appraiser certifies they inspect comps from at least the street......
Why do I have a difficult time understanding this?

Maybe you haven't signed the certification attached to a BPO.

Underlying this issue is the larger question that nobody seems to care except appraisers.