Over the years, it seems that there has been as many property-evaluation tools out there as Carter has pills. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a plethora of different appraisal forms, and they are constantly undergoing change.Read more

It seems that the opinions of those in the lending community, involving the different methods, procedures and practices pertaining to the evaluation of collateral, vary. Most of us have grown accustomed to appraisals; however, there are other methods being used that many of us never have had reason to become aware of.Read more

Yes, we as taxpayers did lose hundreds of billions of dollars recently due to the mortgage crisis. This is the second time that this has happened during my career as a mortgage professional.Read more

Within the past couple of years, we have experienced a complete meltdown of our economy, the mortgage industry and our banking system. As a result, we have witnessed wholesale changes in the way appraisals are purchased. Mortgage brokers, loan officers and anyone else with a financial interest in a transaction are unable to purchase appraisals.Read more

Whether you are a real estate attorney, agent, appraiser or lender, you have, no doubt, felt the effects of mortgage loan government regulation, in recent years, and particularly, in recent months. Even among those whom have been less affected in the past, there is the constant threat of additional regulation coming down the pike. Over the past three or four decades, we have seen growing government regulation creeping into our industry at practically every level of government.Read more

We have all heard complaints concerning appraised values being lower than selling prices in today’s recessionary environment. The buyer wants to buy a property and the lender wants to make a loan, but the appraisal stands in the way. There are a lot of possible reasons for this, and not all situations are the same.Read more

Elliott & Company Appraisers has announced the promotion of Client Services Director Carlyle Holt to the position of vice president. Holt literally grew up in the mortgage lending industry and has an extensive background in property and casualty insurance and commercial and residential construction restoration. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from North Carolina State University and currently holds a North Carolina Loan Officer License and a North Carolina Real Estate License.Read more

Amidst all of the discussion of the mortgage crisis and the implementation of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), there has been lots of finger pointing, concerning who was at fault for the meltdown and what should and should not be done to fix the problem(s). Unless you have been in seclusion for the past year, you have heard of the attempts of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to keep appraisers separated from loan originators.Read more

Within the past year, we in the financial industry have witnessed catastrophic economic changes like never before seen in modern times. The change, while seeming to erupt from a typical soft market, exploded into a multifaceted economic tsunami of biblical proportions. It resulted in a complete economic collapse of the underpinning of our financial system and affected every part of our lives.Read more

The change that we in the mortgage and housing industries have experienced within the past year is amazing. As a result of last fall’s elections, we have gone from a relatively conservative government to a significantly more liberal one. The economy has tanked in a way that most of us have never witnessed. Now with the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) and other regulatory mandates, some of us have been less than positive about our profession and our jobs.Read more