Happy Holidays!

I’d like to wish a sincere happy holidays from my family to yours. Each year around this time, I like to reflect on the challenges and successes of the past year. Business this year has been amazing, with an ever-changing and challenging market. I have also been working on an exciting new analysis tool I hope to bring to market in 2019. As for my personal life, I am blessed to have great health and am surrounded by my loved ones.

If you haven’t seen or heard from me in the past few weeks, I’ve momentarily stepped away from the mortgage appraisal business. With the devastating fires affecting Butte County, I’ve been hired by insurance companies to complete disaster appraisals in Paradise, Magalia, and Chico. As of this blog post I’ve valued over $8.1 M in improvements for the community. This community needs all the help they can get. 153,336 acres were burned destroying 13,972 residences, 528 commercial structures, and 4,293 other buildings. If you looking for great organizations to donate to this holiday season, I recommend the North Valley Community Foundation Camp Fire Relief (click for link), the Aaron Rodgers Norcal Fire Recovery Fund, and the North Valley Animal Disaster Group. The disaster appraisals have kept me very busy but I expect to be back doing mortgage-related appraisals at the beginning of 2019.

Who needs an appraisal anyway?

There is a current proposal from the FDIC, Federal Reserve, and Treasury Department which if passed, would NOT require appraisals for some mortgages under $400,000. While I may be slightly biased, as I do make my living by appraising properties, this change would impact everyone. If appraisals are removed from lending, numerous loans would be made that shouldn’t be. If we thought that stated income loans in 2008 were a bad idea, giving a loan without an accurate valuation of collateral is even worse. The US taxpayer will again be on the hook to bail out those institutions that make bad loans. The appraiser is typically the only person in a lending transaction that has no skin in the game. When I complete an appraisal in Grass Valley or Nevada City, I am giving my honest opinion of what it would sell for regardless of the price agreed upon by the buyer and seller. A realtor makes a commission on a percentage of the sales price and a mortgage broker only gets paid if they fund a loan. An appraiser is the only analyst in the transaction that is completely unbiased. I highly urge you to sign a change.org petition that my good friend Ryan Lundquist started, author of the nationally recognized sacramentoappraisalblog.com, and is sending to the FDIC, Federal Reserve, United States Department of the Treasure and President Donald J Trump.

I’ll have a large market update in early January 2019 where I analyze how the number of sales has changed in specific price groups since the bottom of the market. I’ll also be updating all of the areas in nevadacountymarketupdates.com.

Again, I wish you the happiest of holidays this season and a prosperous new year!