This is another excellent question asked of a viewer of my website.  Here's what the HUD Handbook says regarding evidence of dampness:

"Mark the box on the form if there is evidence of dampness.  Examine the foundation/basement for dampness or readily observable evidence of water damage.  Signs of past water problems may include efflorescence, mold, mildew or stains on walls or mechanical equipment.  Basement or crawl space area must not have excessive dampness or ponding of water.  If any of these inadequacies exist, condition the appraisal "subject to repairs" to correct the condition or "subject to inspection" to determine the source of the problem and corrective measures necessary by a qualified party."

 

 

 

 

I received this excellent question from someone viewing my website last night.  Here is the answer: 

The Code states that members of the lender's loan production staff who are compensated on a commission basis or who report to any officer of the lender not independent of the loan production staff and process are not permitted to order appraisals or influence the selection of appraisers. Ideally, a Seller should establish complete separation of appraisal activities from loan production activities. At an absolute minimum, the degree of seperation should be no less than one level up in report structure. To mitigate any potential conflict of interest due to reporting relationships, Sellers should establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and procedures that are designed to reinforce independence.

 

While there was a bit of a learning curve the first couple of months, I am really pleased with this tablet pc I use in the field to do appraisal inspections.  My appraisal reports are being completed much faster and more acurately than ever.  The appraisal reports are 50% complete by the time I leave the property.  Several homeowners have commented that they have not seen other appraisers using one.  I've always been one to use cutting edge technology and it always pays off in the long run.  My next toy will be a Disto bluetooth enabled laser measurement device.  I use a laser measuring device and measuring tape now, but the Disto should completely replace both of those and will actually draw the measurements on my tablet pc for me, saving me even more time.   

I'm starting to do a lot more FHA 203K Appraisals again due to the abundance of Bank Owned Properties and Short Sale Fixer's out there.  This is a great loan for those wanting to buy a fixer and have the repairs completed before the close of escrow.  The buyer of the last one I completed closed escrow with $60,000 in equity because the sales price was based on the "as is" value, not the value after the repairs.  You can gain thousands in equity with just a little paint, flooring and new fixture (sweat equity).  These 203K loans were popular after the Savings & Loans Failures in the early 1990's and I that's when I first started doing these types of appraisals. 

I was invited to speak in a Real Estate Finance Class tomorrow at Long Beach City College.  I'm looking forward to sharing all the latest in the appraisal industry with the class.  I did this last semester and it was a lot of fun!

Wow, did I learn a lot over the 3 day alamode convention.  The 2nd day I mostly learned some advanced techniques for using my WinTOTAL appraisal software, including marketing, XSite maintenance, on-line order management and bringing it all together for an efficient workflow.  The 3rd day I learned how to make pivot tables and graphs in Excel.  This will make it easier to visually display housing market analysis for clients, which is becoming increasingly more in demand by lenders and Fannie Mae is expected to announce a new 1 page legal form as early as October which will include Housing Market Analysis.  This form will be apparently be required to be included with appraisal reports by March 1, 2009.  Alamode already has a form for this, so our clients can look forward to seeing more of these types of graphs and tables in our reports very soon.

I left for Sacramento from Long Beach on Saturday at about 12pm and made it here in 6.5 hours.  My room is big and I have a view of a Lake with paddle boats that you can rent.  My first night stay was a little rough.  The couple next door were having a good 'ol time and woke me up at 4am.  I really didn't appreciate that, until I walked outside to go get some coffee and I saw a car that had "Just Married" on the back window.  I was tempted to change rooms, but I haven't seen their car since, so they must have been on the way to some other destination.  I'm here for an alamode appraisal software convention.  I'm learning all kinds of cool stuff that is going to make my life easier and also enable me to get my appraisals completed faster for my clients.  I have all the "bells and whistles" alamode has to offer, so it will be fun putting it all to work now that I'm learning how to work with it more efficiently.  I'm really excited about the DaVinci Mobile Pro Software that I can put on a tablet pc and take to job sites with me, so I can complete my inspections more quickly and more thoroughly with less typing.  I also learned about the new generation of software that is still in the development stages, they are calling "Armstrong".  Last night I visited a local pizza place called "Extreme Pizza".  I had 2 slices of pepperoni pizza and it was very good.  The crust was crispy, just like I like it and not to thick.  The owners were a very friendly couple married for 42 years and it turns out they were both appraisers too.  They gave me some free samples of imported beer and we chatted for a while.  They bought this business 1.5 years ago when the appraisal industry started changing so drastically.  They still do appraisals in addition to running their pizza business.  Well, I better run.  I still have to get my breakfast and coffee.  Speaking of coffee, the folks at alamode commented yesterday that they couldn't believe how much coffee we appraisers drink.  They were serving Starbucks and it was gone by lunch time. I still have 2 more days of seminars to go, so I'll keep you posted on how it goes.  Then, I'm off to Lake Shasta to visit my sister for a couple of days.

Pass on your comments at http://www.alamode.com/action  Deadline for commentary is 4/30/08.  The aspects of the HVCC which damage appraisers and consumers are too numerous to list.  Help stop the HVCC now.