Sara Goodwin's Blog

I kept hearing mention of this Consumer Consequences game on NPR, but it took me until now to find the link.                        What did I find out about myself and my sustainability?  I'm an absolute pig... 3.4 planets worth to be 'exact' - Here are a couple of facts that I learned by playin...

    Our Oregon market is not as solid as we hoped... This seems like a good (at very least educational) opportunity for home owners, real estate professionals and investors alike.  The home builder is Buena Vista and the homes are all in Lake Oswego Happy Valley/Clackamas area. "The auction will ...

There are many reasons that I wanted to become an Appraiser.  I was attracted to the ‘half blue collar / half white collar' aspect with time split between being on the road and seeing places I wouldn't normal venture, to spending the other half behind a computer being analytical.  At first I thou...

After a slow day of Appraisal inspections (holidays like this Veterans Day, is usually busy for Appraisal inspections due to ‘normal folks' having days like these off).  I was listening to this on NPR.  This newscast has come up on a blog one other time on AR.  (I wish I could remember the source...

 The house is in my neighborhood and I walk past it nearly every day.  I've run across this sale quite a few times in my sales searches.  I'm not sure what the inside looks like, but the outside is less than spectacular.  I imagine that the inside has upgrades such as 14k gold leaf wall paper, an...

I know the GPS is a house or two off and images are a bit lacking, but I must say that Google Street Views has potential.  I'm inclined to reference Street View links in my report if there's a view or other neighborhood amenity/defect that is note-worthy.For instance now I can show my client that...

I'm starting to think that perhaps it would be wise to make USPAP mandatory for Lenders as well -Thanks to Anne O'Rourke's email newsletter, I was directed to this article at the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter (they're great web sites, you should bookmark both of them).  Here are some key points...

I first made mention of an unscrupulous Loan Officer that was fishing for less than honest Appraiser's in this post.  I thought I had also made mention of this post that is on my myspace appraiser's forum (rather inactive since I discovered AR).  Here is the gist of the originally poster: im the ...

ABC Lender Guideline Update - Appraisal GuidelinesABC Lender is amending the appraisal requirements for all of its loan programs. The changes include:The Maximum Distance for Comparables is 0.5 (Urban), 1.0 (Suburban), and 5.0 miles (Rural). Comparables that exceed the distances above will not be...

 The following was written by a friend in need.  I'm hoping that someone has some legal suggestions of what might be done.  The only thing that I could think of is to ask for a police escort whenever he comes and goes from his own house.  I'm unclear how the neighbor was so much more successful w...