March 2012

The Tale Of A Low Appraisal

March 21, 2012 Appraisal
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The Tale Of A Low Appraisal It all started on a mid-afternoon day in the middle of January (last year), with the wind howling and the air so cold that your spit would freeze before it hit the ground. The phone was quiet, the dog was snoring, and then I heard the ding of an incoming email. Yahoo! An […]

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Housing Trivia: Who Invented Toilet Paper

March 20, 2012 Housing Trivia
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The last housing trivia post was about who invented the first flush toilet, so I felt it was only fitting to unravel the mystery of who invented toilet paper. Heck, what good is a toilet if you don’t have a fluffy roll of “TP” to go with it. First, I was surprised that there were several […]

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Don’t Blame The Appraiser, Blame the Underwriter!

March 16, 2012 Appraisal
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I recently finished an appraisal for the sale of a hobby farm that turned out to be fairly difficult. The biggest challenge was to find comparable sales that had a similar out building. This was no ordinary building; it was over 4500 square feet with an insulated shop area, tack room, and eight horse stalls. Typically […]

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How To Measure a Condo For An Appraisal

March 15, 2012 Appraisal
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Measuring a condominium for an appraisal is fairly simple and easy to do, that is unless you have a grain silo that’s been turned into condominiums. I appraised one of these units several years ago, which was quite the challenge due to the round walls. For this example I think we’ll stick to the traditional squared walls. […]

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Housing Trivia: Who Invented The Flush Toilet

March 12, 2012 Housing Trivia
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Like many things in the real estate there are a lot of myths that have been bandied around, and who invented the toilet (which doesn’t have much to do with appraisals) ranks up there as one of the oldest around. Many have come to believe that Thomas Crapper was the one to invent the flush toilet, heck, how many […]

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Housing Trivia: Who Invented The Doorbell?

March 12, 2012 Housing Trivia
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The reason I thought about this is because my current house doesn’t have a doorbell, and for the life of me I can’t ever remember not having a doorbell in any house that I’ve lived in. One thing’s for sure, not having one is fine with me. But it did make me wonder who came up with this […]

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5 Things Appraiser’s Look For When Analyzing A Purchase Agreement

March 10, 2012 Appraisal
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Every appraisal for a purchase that is done on the Fannie Mae 1004 form, the appraiser is required to analyze the purchase agreement. Some say that the only thing that appraiser’s look for is the sales price so they know what number to hit (or some would say what number not to hit). While it is true […]

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Does FHA Require Appliances

March 6, 2012 FHA
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Sometimes I find myself scratching my head wondering how some of these myths get started in the first place. FHA doesn’t require appliances, all they require is a cooking area. If there are appliances already at the property, then they’ll have to be operational and meet local safety codes.  HUD-MPR states in 2-9 SPACE REQUIREMENTS. […]

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Ask The Appraiser: When Did Appraisers Become Home Inspectors?

March 1, 2012 Appraisal

Over the past several years I’ve had some very good questions that have been asked on various topics regarding appraisals for FHA financing.  So I’ve decided to recap some of those questions in blog posts. My guess is that if one or two people have had a particular question regarding a certain issue, then most likely there are several others wondering the same thing. Some […]

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