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May 17, 2007

Zillow Exemption Passes in Arizona

A bill exempting online home value websites from state licensing law has passed both state houses in Arizona. After initially falling short of the two-thirds majority, the bill passed the House of Representatives last week and will now move on to a conference committee before going to the governor to sign. As reported earlier, The Arizona Board of Appraisal has issued two cease-and-desist letters to Zillow in the past year asking the firm to cease its automated valuations, called “Zestimates,” for properties in Arizona. The board has charged that Zillow is violating state licensing laws by offering the zestimates without an appraiser's license.

May 08, 2007

Baseball Bats in a Mortgage Office

We've mentioned before the pressure appraisers can come under to sign off on mortgage applications. The Washington Post brings us another story from sub-prime lender New Century Financial. Former employees characterized the atmosphere as unrelenting, with daily "unofficial quotas" on the number of loans to approve and bat-wielding loan agents banging desks when their deals were rejected by staff appraisers. An unnamed New Century executive granted that he believed the allegations were possible, but stated they were not "not representative of our offices."

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Power Tools for Appraisers, from NAR's Information Central, provides information on research studies, websites, books, news, tips, and other resources for real estate appraisal professionals.
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