I was quoted in an article by Emir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal, who has done a great job following the appraisal situation as it unfolds, saying:
>“In my opinion, 70% to 80% of appraisals that were done during the housing boom are probably not worth the paper they’re written on because the appraisers…were rewarded with more volume,” said Jonathan J. Miller, a New York appraiser and longtime critic of industry practices. He estimates that home values are overvalued nationwide by at least 10% because of inflated appraisals.
Apparently Glenn Beck at CNN read the quote and invited me on the show yesterday. It was fun, although admittedly I was nervous as I waited in the remote broadcast room during his 2 minute rant, hoping I wasn’t sandbagged. I wasn’t!
It was important to get across the point that there are good appraisers out there, but we are at the mercy of others and unfortunately, many took the low road during the housing boom.
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So would you say they are worth 70-80% of the paper they’re printed on?
As someone who works with scratch and dent or acq/rehab, the valuation is often a question of “how aggressive do you want to be, and what are the consequences of missing your return targets?”
In many ways I think appraising is tougher because of the varied return requirements of buyers.