Shelterfield Valuation Services

We would like to add that sellers (or purchasers) who are dissatisfied with an appraisal and have data about the local real estate market that was not reflected in the appraisal report (such as recent comparable sales), should make that clear, state those facts plainly and request another appraiser. The company that hired the original appraiser may have failed to ensure that he or she was familiar with the property's market area, leading to a questionable valuation.

The Dodd-Frank Act has contributed to many highly skilled and qualified appraisers - in particular, Appraisal Institute-certified Senior Residential Analysts - leaving the industry for lack of fairly paid work. Recently, the American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) retained a law firm as part of a broad-reaching effort to overturn these regulations, which threaten the viability of professional appraisal practice and the reliability of appraisals used in real estate transactions. The attached article is yet another example of how the appraisal and real estate industries are feeling the effects of Dodd-Frank

Online real estate sites like Zillow, Homes.com and Realtor.com are increasingly becoming go-to resources for consumers and even some professionals. The problem with these sites is that their home valuations tend to be inherently flawed because they fail to recognize submarkets within a market. If you start with an analysis by zip code, with no knowledge of the types of housing within the zip code, the results will probably not be reliable. For example, in the Norristown, Pa., zip code, there are three submarkets: East Norriton, West Norriton, and Norristown Borough. If the value analysis is based on sales within the zip code, the resulting information will present an incomplete picture. In short, knowledge of a particular market and its submarkets is critical to a credible appraisal analysis.

The American Guild of Appraisers (AGA), a national organization of real estate appraisers that is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO's Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), announced today it has retained a law firm as part of a broad-reaching effort to overturn recent federal regulations that dramatically cut the fees that appraisers are paid to perform appraisals, and threaten the viability of professional appraisal practice and the reliability of appraisals used in real estate transactions.

The Appraisal Institute has issued guidelines addressing "green" home improvements. Nonetheless, we are of the opinion that "green" features remain largely irrelevant in the context of current appraisals. There are not enough sales of green houses to form a reliable database of comparables, and the cost of residential green technology is too high compared to money saved in the short term. Thus the payback period in energy savings is too far down the line to make it relevant in a present value appraisal.