Appraisal Talk with George Opelka - The Appraiser's Choice

You, Me, & UAD

Rosanna Bracciale — Fri, 06 May 2011 15:14:00 GMT

BUZZ: It was extremely helpful for ACI to provide industry leaders with a preview of UAD at work within the ACI software at the Collateral Risk Network meetings in New Orleans last month. This was the first opportunity for many to see UAD up close from the appraiser's point-of-view. Can you comment on the reaction from the Q&A that continued throughout the session?

Opelka: The session was very well received and it was an educational exercise that facilitated many positive comments and questions which were then addressed in the demo. Liz Green, ACI's Director of Valuation Technologies did an admirable job providing a brief UAD overview and walking the group through the ACI software which featured UAD picklists, rules, and appraiser guidance.

BUZZ: It's obvious that ACI put a lot of thought into the software to help both the appraiser and the intended user. I really like the addition of the UAD Glossary Addendum, and I think the underwriters will too! Will this be commonplace across all appraisal software?

Opelka: My sense is that the software vendors will provide a glossary of some type. With all the various codes for condition, quality, and newly introduced abbreviations, the UAD Glossary is a necessary addition that will help underwriters better understand the appraisal report right out of the gate. And you're right, there certainly was a significant level of planning that went into this project. For example, we incorporated online "guidance" for any UAD field in order to help ACI appraisers right at the point of data entry. Given the ground rules provided by the GSEs, the objective was to make the process as simple as possible for an ACI appraiser.

BUZZ: Is there anything that appraisers can do to prepare for UAD in advance of the September 1, 2011 inception date?

Opelka: There are numerous steps appraisers should take to become aware and prepare for UAD. First of all, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have excellent resources on the web specific to UAD readiness. I'll include the links below to Fannie and Freddie's resources, and I strongly encourage appraisers to become acquainted with either of these helpful UAD primers. Secondly, appraisers should talk to their appraisal software vendor and get a sense of their release schedule so they can plan accordingly. Finally, appraisers should talk to their clients so that they understand any deadlines for implementation as well as any special delivery expectations.

BUZZ: Will ACI be providing any UAD training for appraisers?

Opelka: Absolutely. We have an aggressive webinar program that focuses on using UAD in conjunction with the ACI software. The UAD Training Webinar will begin in early June and will run throughout the summer. In addition to getting an in depth look at the software, we'll also provide an interactive Q&A at the end of each session. We've been posting "UAD Tips and Tricks" on the ACI website since early March to introduce appraisers to UAD in small chunks.

Buzz: Is there a cost for the training and where can someone sign up for the webinar?

Opelka: The training is provided at no cost to any ACI customer with an active service agreement. ACI customers will receive invitations via e-mail and can check AppraisersChoice.com in the next couple of weeks for details on how they can register for the training sessions.

Buzz: Thanks for visiting The Buzz and sharing your comments with our readers.

Opelka: You're welcome. UAD marks a significant event in our industry and appraisers should take advantage of the information currently available and begin the education process today.

Important Links: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac

Super Heros and Super Fees

Rosanna Bracciale — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:19:00 GMT

Several hundred industry professionals recently gathered in Las Vegas for the Valuation 2010 conference. ACI was an active participant at the conference and was also a Platinum sponsor for the event. Our theme for the conference was a tribute to the origins of appraisal standards, the standardized form. Many of you remember Greg Opelka (my father) who was the focus of my recent blog, The Green Hornet Grows Up. In spirit of highlighting appraisal standards, we “invited” The Green Hornet, Kato and a few of their super hero buddies to the show for opening night! In today's market we could all use a little super-hero strength.

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

The conference highlights included several topical panel discussions, networking opportunities, continuing education classes and an exposition hall packed with more than thirty vendors that included appraisal companies, data providers, and software companies. Many appraisers attended ACI’s complimentary “Open House,” a pre-conference interactive session designed to provide our clients with the opportunity to meet with one of our experts for some one-on-one guidance. So if you’re in the budget and planning process for 2011, I would highly recommend that you mark your calendar to attend the Valuation Expo next year!

TODAY, TOMORROW, AND BEYOND

Speaking of budget planning, the end of the year marks an opportune time to set the course for the future. As I reflect back on the changes in the industry over the last year, one of the more prominent themes revolved around the discussion of fees. Moving into the new year, it will becoming increasingly important for appraisers to become acutely aware of fees and the costs associated with producing an accurate and credible report.

One of the new tools we showcased at Valuation 2010 Expo was a fee calculator. As a professional appraiser, you have a wealth of information at your fingertips that can be utilized to identify business opportunities. Our objective in creating a fee calculator was to empower you to quickly analyze your costs at an assignment level. The feedback we received on the fee calculator at the show was extremely positive and helpful. The first offering of the Reasonable Fee Calculator (RFC) has just been released as a form to ACI2010!

You’ll find the RFC learning curve to be friendly and easy to interact with as it leverages ACI’s forms technology. Initially, you’ll provide the RFC with your Monthly and Annual Operating Expenses using the itemized inputs provided in the calculator and save the information as a template. The RFC will drill your itemized expenses down to a dollar per hour rate which is then plugged into the RFC at a report level. Prior to accepting an assignment, you have the ability to use the RFC to determine your internal “Total Cost” to produce an accurate and credible appraisal report!

This “add-on” form will enable you to examine fee schedules, territories, and assignment types and use this data to better understand your business by identifying efficiencies, inefficiencies and profit margins. I suspect that many of you already do this today. ACI will continue to strive to bring you the tools and services that give you super strength in your appraisal practice.

The Reasonable Fee Calculator is available as a desktop form for ACI2010 users with an active premier service support contract. Simply run WebUpdate to keep your ACI current with the latest updates available.

The Green Hornet Grows Up!

Bea Acs — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:39:00 GMT

The Evolution of the Appraisal Report

In the Fall of 1962, like many real estate appraisers, I was born into the appraisal profession. My father, F. Gregory Opelka, MAI, SREA, SRA logged fifty years of industry service between 1952 and 2002. He spent 48 of those years with Fairfield Savings & Loan where he served in the capacity as Chief Appraiser, Executive Vice President, and director, before retiring in 2002. With those credentials, you can appreciate that growing up Opelka meant that we learned the definition of “market value” and then we learned to walk.

By the time that I was seven, I was tagging along on inspections with my Dad. I quickly realized that holding one end of the measuring tape against the house or peeling the positive film layer away from the negative produced from the Polaroid camera was a lot of fun, and while my participation didn’t necessarily make me an integral part of the lending process, the experience introduced me to the fascinating tools of the trade at an early age.

The next 10 summers of my life were spent attending the Annual Appraisal Convention hosted by the Society of Real Estate Appraisers (SREA). As kids, we spent most of the time at the pool, but it was at those conferences where I forged friendships with many of my baby boomer peers who were on vacation with Mom and Dad as well. Little did we know our professional fate had already been pre-determined!

It was in the early 1980s at the SREA Summer Conference where I first started to recognize the important role my Dad played in the development of standardized appraisal reporting. At the encouragement of John Cirincione, SRA, I’d like to share a brief but important slice of appraisal history that you probably won’t hear or read about in any appraisal classroom or seminar.

Introducing Form #17-PRA

In the late 1950s, my Dad taught real estate appraisal courses in the evenings at the Savings and Loan Institute in downtown Chicago. Through his teaching ventures, he was invited to serve as an appraisal consultant to the U.S. League of Savings and Loan Associations. Additionally, he wrote a monthly appraisal column for publication in the Savings and Loan News, a trade magazine—a division of the U.S. League. As a result of an early consulting-writing assignment with the U.S. League, my Dad created appraisal form "#17-PRA" in 1962.

The appraisal report form was presented to the Appraisal Committee of the U.S. League for review and consideration for adoption and use by savings and loan associations across the United States. The form was initially presented on green paper with green ink strictly for marketing spin. The form was approved for nationwide members' use by the U.S. League’s Appraisal Committee and was numbered form #17-PRA, Professional Residential Appraisal by the U.S. League staff. Form #17-PRA was then printed and sold by the Accounting Division of the U.S. League. Remember, this occurred in 1962 (pre-ACI), so the completion of this form was intended to be a handwritten field report, and submitted accordingly.

It wasn’t until after the form was released and in production when the appraisal staff of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Indianapolis submitted a report critiquing the new form. This critique was published in a monthly professional trade magazine of the Society of Residential Appraisers. Of historical note, it was this local Indianapolis S&L appraisal committee that affectionately dubbed the new form "The Green Hornet"! Ironically, the name stuck and even today, almost fifty years later, the Green Hornet continues to charm and identify with the residential appraisal process.

The URAR ERA

In 1984, twenty-two years after the birth of the Green Hornet, a new initiative to create a standard appraisal form was spearheaded by the Society of Real Estate Appraisers. A committee was formed out of this initiative, wherein the Society of Real Estate Appraisers appointed F. Gregory Opelka, MAI, SREA, SRA, as Chairman of a new Uniform Appraisal Form committee. He was directed by the SREA to select and work with appraisal representatives from the Appraisal Institute and several various government agencies. Howard Sears, acting President of the SREA called for the development of a new common form. Aside from the SREA, the Institute, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and the VA, there were a few other government agencies, and all were actively involved in the development of this new form.

The advent of the personal computer provided better tools to develop the successor to the Green Hornet—an appraisal form using spreadsheet-like software. Initially, my Dad designed the new form in Visi-Calc and then shifted to developing it in Lotus 1-2-3.

The new form committee meetings were all held at the SREA Washington Headquarters Offices in the Watergate Office Building. The form development, given changing updates from meeting to meeting, took approximately two years to perfect a version acceptable to the committee and all the various agencies represented.

When design was finalized and approved by the appraisal committee and the various organizations they represented, the form was adopted and called the Uniform Residential Appraisal Report…the URAR (named by Fannie Mae). The URAR, like its forerunner, the Green Hornet, twenty-two years its senior, featured Market Data Approach to Value sections in the form, wherein current and local timely comparable sales were included and processed through to Indicated Opinions of Value. Various modifications to the original URAR form have taken place since its inception, but, by-and-large, the original basic URAR style and form continues its mission serving the appraisal profession—in short, the URAR has stood the test of time.

The Analytics Age of Valuation

Fast forward twenty-six years to 2010 and it’s déjà vu all over again. Only this time, there is an industry collaborative effort to standardize the data within the appraisal report. On May 24, 2010, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced an initiative by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to improve the consistency and quality of data for appraisals and other loan information. According to the Uniform Mortgage Data Program Overview published by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (available at eFannieMae.com or freddiemac.com), a Uniform Appraisal Dataset that “standardizes appraisal data definitions for a key subset of field on the uniform residential appraisal reports” will be available in September 2010. Additionally, a Uniform Collateral Data Portal for the electronic collection of appraisal data is currently in development.

As a result of these initiatives, any loans eligible for sale to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac must include appraisals that conform to the standards outlined in the Uniform Appraisal Dataset. For loans with an application date on or after January 1, 2011, lenders will be “required to deliver electronic appraisal data to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” In order to increase the number of data elements, the delivery formats will leverage the MISMO Version 3.0 industry standard.

Thanks to fifty years of innovation, the appraisal report has evolved from a paper-driven standard to a data-driven standard. The PC revolution, the advent of digital cameras, the maturation of appraisal software, a little thing called the Internet, and an industry working in concert were all major contributors to the “Analytics Age of Valuation” that we are about to enter.

The Green Hornet may not have been designed to standardize appraisal data and delivery protocols, however; I believe the standard, paper-based, handwritten appraisal report evolved over time and served as the foundation and catalyst for the Analytics Age of Valuation. And while a few industry visionaries are of the mindset that appraisal forms disappear as a result of our newly appointed direction, I believe both data and forms exist side by side to insure that visibility and transparency remain an integral component of the valuation process.

Say YES to MLS!

Bea Acs — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:00:00 GMT

ACI2010™ boasts some slick productivity tools that will bring a new level of efficiency to your appraisal report writing process. You'll really love ACI2010's data import capabilities; specifically “how to” import comps from your local MLS data, directly into the grid, as well as the 1004MC Addendum.

Let’s talk about your MLS provider, because that’s where all the fun begins. Most of the MLS systems around the country today provide the ability to export or download the results from your MLS search to a file. You may have to hunt and peck to find this feature on your MLS menu, but if your MLS has this capability, then you can say YES TO MLS! The key word or acronym that you’re looking for is “CSV”, a commonly used file format which stands for Comma Separated Value. If we haven’t mapped the CSV from your MLS, just call ACI Sales at 800-234-8727 and say “MLS PLEASE” and we’ll build the filter to import the MLS data directly into ACI2010. There is chance that we’ve already “mapped” your MLS, which means the hard part is done.

Search. Export. Import. So how does it work? Let’s assume you’ve researched your MLS, exported the market data to a CSV file, inspected the comps, and now you’re ready to import the data into your appraisal report. Launch ACI, and point to Import Analysis on the eServices menu. Select the CSV file from your local drive, and ACI2010 will import the sales/listing directly into ACI2010’s market data worksheet for further analysis.

Market Conditions Magic. Once you’re in the worksheet, assign the effective date, and the worksheet automatically separates the sales and listing data into the appropriate monthly time slots. The worksheet presents a list of all the properties that drive the market calculations (Inventory Analysis, Median Sale & Price, DOM). Trends are quickly assigned using dropdowns in the worksheet. In the event you run across a non-arms length transaction, check a box to exclude any properties from your calculations. When you’re satisfied with the results, click “Import to ACI” to populate the 1004MC Addendum as well as the current listing and sales data above the grid—that’s all there is to it.

Great Gridness! If you want to import the comps to the grid, you can use the worksheet to do that too! Click the “comparable import” tab in the worksheet to view all the sales and listings in the CSV file. Using the “available comparables” drop downs, assign your comparable sales and listings to the appropriate slot, and the worksheet imports yours comps directly into the grid—sorry, you’ll have to make your own adjustments.

If I’ve piqued your interest, I encourage you watch the 1004MC eService In-Motion video in action. The MC eService works off the ChoiceCredits™ model, so if you currently have ChoiceCredits in your account, just call Sales to have the MC eService added into your profile, and you’re good to go. If you'd like to learn more about either of these new productivity tools, please call ACI Sales at 1-800-234-8727.

Talk to you soon!
George

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, MISMO

Bea Acs — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:20:00 GMT

Last week must have been National XML Awareness Week as we were inundated with calls about delivering files to lenders in an XML or MISMO format. Apparently a few lenders have sent out E-Mails in order to alert appraisers about Fannie Mae's appraisal delivery system which is officially named Collateral Data Delivery (CDD). Lenders will provide appraisal data to the CDD via a web-based system.

Great news for ACI appraisers as Fannie Mae has approved ACI XML as an accepted delivery standard for the CDD. In the event any of your clients are asking you to deliver your appraisals in an “XML” format per Fannie Mae, we are adding this functionality as an add on to our ACI 2010 software. This delivery protocol will be accommodated through our existing eServices plug-in which means zero learning curve for the majority of our users.

You may be wondering what the heck is an XML file? You can think of XML as a raw data file that contains information from the appraisal report excluding the form image. The reason that you have been asked to deliver an XML file is because your lender client is probably going to sell the loan to Fannie Mae, and as part of their Loan Quality initiative, Fannie Mae will require both a PDF of the appraisal report along with an XML file. The XML can be further analyzed as part of Fannie Mae’s loan quality program.

Keep in mind there are many different flavors of XML. Fannie Mae is accepting ACI-XML as well as a version of XML that was developed by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Per Fannie Mae, "effective on a date to be announced, but no earlier than July 1, 2010, for each loan delivered to Fannie Mae, sellers must submit electronic appraisal data in an acceptable XML format at least 24 hours prior to delivery of the loan to Fannie Mae."

Do you need to do anything today? You may want to contact sales to confirm that your eServices subscription is current. In order to get ready to deliver to CDD, you can tell your clients with confidence that ACI, your software vendor, is an accepted delivery standard for Fannie Mae's CDD platform. We'll continue to keep you posted as any new developments unfold.

Power. Freedom. Choice.

Bea Acs — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:15:00 GMT

Hello and welcome to my introductory blog! It's my pleasure to reach out and share some ACI news with appraisers. I hope the fact that you're here means you've weathered the industry storm and your appraisal business is on the rise. The objective of my blog is to periodically provide you with some insight as to what's brewing at ACI. We have many exciting projects in the development queue today and several slated for 2010—stay tuned. Now onto today's topic of ChoiceCredits™!

Share. Explore. Save.

Recently we rolled out a "ChoiceCredits" program designed to help ACI appraisers better control their costs to access maps, floodmaps, and residential cost data. This pay-per-use service provides ACI appraisers with tremendous flexibility in that it eliminates the need for ACI appraisers to subscribe to multiple services. Using this approach, you can access your floodmaps, cost data, etc… across multiple computers as long as ACI on the additional computers is registered to your company.

How do ChoiceCredits work?

Each service has an associated ChoiceCredit weight. For example, flood maps have a weight of 2 ChoiceCredits. If you have 500 ChoiceCredits on file in your account and you pull a flood map, your balance is automatically adjusted to 498 ChoiceCredits. And you can use the same ChoiceCredits to access residential cost data, location maps, and other services. We'll be adding more service providers to the list in the near future.

How do I purchase ChoiceCredits?

One of the major benefits of ChoiceCredits is they can be shared across an entire office or multiple computers/laptops that have an ACI license associated to that office. ChoiceCredits are sold in lots of 500, 1000, 2500 or 5000. The more you buy, the lower your cost per ChoiceCredit. You can also control which services are available to your appraisers and grant access to these services on a person-by-person basis.

If you're interested in giving ChoiceCredits a try, we've put together a limited-time special.

Please visit our website often and catch up on the latest blogs, inMotion videos, and news about ACI software updates.