January 31, 2011 - Comparable Selection
When you provide appraisers comparables, make sure that is what they are. If the subject house is 3 bedroom 2 bath, 1,600 sf in Lakewood Please don’t hand the appraiser a home that is 4+ bedrooms over 1,900 sf and over a mile away in Long Beach, and over 6 months old.
Current underwriting has changed for loans. Lenders want to see a minimum of 3 sold comps within the last 90 days. As well as 2 Active or Pending sales.
I typically try to stay as close to the subject as possible for starters. If the house is 3/1, I will focus one finding other 3/1’s first, then expand t 2/1’s and 4/2’s. I want to bracket the square footage. If the subject is 1,600 sf, I want comps that are less and more then 1,600 sf. Remember, we are trying to find the best match to the subject if possible.
Also, tell the appraiser was comps you used in determining the list price. The more information you can provide to the appraiser the better.
Sometimes, the best thing you can do when you think it might not appraise for the price your sellers wants to list is for, call me. I can help, by providing an objective opinion from a third party. I can do this for a small fee.
If you have any Apprasial Needs in Long Beach/Lakewood or surrounding areas, call me at 562-673-1138 or go to my website www.wallaceRES.com
January 25, 2011 - Current Long Beach Real Estate Market
The current Long Beach Market remains sluggish, we are still in a “Buyers Market” . The Market Action Index(MAI) is still below 30, anything below is a buyers market, anything above is a sellers market. The 90 day MAI stands at 17.20. The inventory has been tightening and the days-on-market has been increasing to an average of 165 days. This is not good for the overall market.
Agents, these reports from an appraiser, along with your CMA are a great tool to bring to a listing interview. An added feature would be a Desktop Appraisal of the subject house.
If you are interested, please call Craig Wallace at 562.673.1138
January 22, 2011 - The Total # of Appraisers in Long Beach
I was curious as to the total number of appraiser there are in the city of Long Beach
I went to the OREA website looked them up. Then, I decided to see how many are independent fee appraisers and how many are not. Any appraiser listed as working for a bank or a government agency I assume are not independent fee appraisers.
So, we have a Total of 149 Appraisers in Long Beach, of which, 140 are Independent Fee Appraisers. Look at the number of Trainees, only 14. Do you think we are going to have a problem in the future as some Appraisers retire or leave the industry? That is a different topic all together.
Next I was curious to see how many closed sales of Condos and SFR’s there were in Long Beach for the past 4 months. I also wanted to see how this would average out to work for those Appraisers. I did not include Certified General Appraisers since they focus mainly on Commercial work. I also did not include Trainees since they can not really do work on there own. That left only Certified Residential and Licensed Residential Appraisers, a total of 84.
I then took the total number of closed sales and divided that by the number of Fee Appraisers, as you can see that was between 2.7-3.0 Appraisals per Appraiser in Long beach, not including January. I guessed at a conservative post HVCC/AMC fee for an appraisal of $300. Basically each Appraiser would be making $775 -$866 per month.
Wow!
This does not include the fact that appraisers from other areas come to Long Beach.
Basically, there is not enough work for the Appraiser that remain to make a decent living on, couple that with the low fees being paid and the fact that we lost most of our clients when the HVCC went into effect, it is no wonder the ranks are thinning.
To me this looks like a good argument to band together and demand a higher fee.
What do you think?
