Regulations affecting appraisers largely useless

[Gunny]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - As soaring home prices set the stage for America's great housing meltdown, a critical step in making sure those home sales were a fair deal — the real estate appraisal — was undermined from within.

After the nation's last major banking disaster, Congress set up a system to catch rogue appraisers. Their game: inflating the value of homes at the direction of equally unscrupulous real estate agents and mortgage brokers, whose commissions are determined by the size of the deals.

But a six-month Associated Press investigation found that the system is crippled by both the bumbling of its policemen and their inability to effectively punish those caught committing fraud.

more ... Regulations affecting appraisers largely useless - Mortgage Mess - MSNBC.com

 

[Chris]

more ... Regulations affecting appraisers largely useless - Mortgage Mess - MSNBC.com

Appraisers and realtors had nothing to do with rising home prices. The market sets the prices, not the realtors or appraisers.

$300 billion dollars in fraudulent mortgage money was added to the market. That is why prices went up. Now that money is gone, and prices are coming down.

 

[editec]

Real Estate Appraisers, if they're doing their jobs correctly, can do nothing about rising or falling prices.

All they can do is evaluate the property, find comparable sales that indicate the recent sales of similar properties, and give their opinion about how much the market is likely to pay for that property should it be put on the market that day.

I used to be a licensed RE appraiser here in Maine.

 

[Zoomie1980]

more ... Regulations affecting appraisers largely useless - Mortgage Mess - MSNBC.com

Appraisers job is to ensure a house actually has market value to cover the notes on the property, which usually means that the house is worth reasonably close to it's selling price. They do that by comparing recent sales of like properties. If they have sold in that range then deal is blessed.