Sara Goodwin's Blog

I hear grumblings from Realtors every now and again that sound something like this... ‘Why should we have to get an appraisal done when the house is on the open market and there are knowledgeable buyers and sellers who have agreed upon a price?'  An episode of HGTV's My First Place (entitled ‘Ho...

It's been a while since I surfed through Active Rain to find some rogue appraisal blogs, so here is the latest (up to 9 months old... too old for a comp these days, btw) and greatest! Donna Harris writes about the appraisal board in Texas. Amy Gooden is perplexed about an appraisal outcome on a s...

Larry Morris invited me to post this MeMe. The rules (which I barely followed) as well as the newly tagged MeMe folks are located at the bottom of the page.  Thanks, Larry J An Appraiser's daily grind is not unlike many real estate professionals.  Driving around, visiting new and interesting plac...

As lender-based appraisals have declined over the past year, appraisers started to lean on alternative avenues of appraising such as appraisals to contest property taxes.  As markets decline across the US and taxes remain stable, this would seem to be a logical direction for any appraiser... But ...

I found this thanks to my free subscription to Ann O'Rourke's email which you can subscribe to the Appraisal Today Newsletter by clicking this link.  Countrywide & LandSafe Skimming Appraisal Fees As promissed here it is: Washington homeowners filed a class-action lawsuit against Countrywide, cla...

Well, we've all had the privilege of experiencing 2008's slippery real estate slopes.  One of my favorite colloquialisms from my dad is: ‘What doesn't kill you will make you stronger'.  I dub that phrase 2008's Appraiser's motto.  With the trifecta of bad luck, greed and bad decisions appraisers ...

Regardless of if and when the HVCC will be placed into existence (in January 2009, March 2009, July 2009? Ever?), many appraisal management companies have done their due diligence of marketing to lenders that they will have to go through a middle-man such as themselves in order to conduct busines...

It's puppy season and this means a higher dog populous at your local shelter. To assist in remedying the lack of kennel space, the Oregon Humane Society is offering a ‘Black Friday Special'.... On Black Friday (November 28th) the shelter is adopting out any animal with a majority of black in it's...

While investigating options for survival in the appraisal industry post-HVCC-2009, I started to research (as I'm sure many of you have) what it would take for our company to become an AMC (appraisal management company).  What I found out was that according to TAVMA, we already are [by definition]...

44  mid-century urban homes otherwise planned for demolition have been saved by contractor Matt Burton in hopes of relocating them somewhere in the Portland area.  Once said and done, the cost to move these houses with run $15,000 a piece.  In addition, Burton would like to build basement foundat...