Danielle Lazier

HVCC Current Appraisal Rules: The Law of Unintended Consequences for SF Home Sales

The Law of Unintended Consequence: When an action leads to results that were unanticipated or unintended; can be positive or negative

The current home appraisal rules (HVAC) have had a myriad of unintended consequences. The intent of the guidelines was laudable: to help make the home valuation process more objective. The idea being that shady appraisers, Realtors, mortgage brokers, buyers and sellers helped create the over-inflated housing mess. I have a couple of issues with this approach. 1. We’re not all shady. 2. As with many bureaucratic pursuits, the intended goals are “lost in translation” as the rules fail to take into account how things actually work in local markets & in practice.

The unintended consequence of the new appraisal rules has been kind of the opposite of what the rules were trying to avoid. Instead of plumping up home prices, they are pushing them down. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: appraisal, hvcc, pricing your home

SF Real Estate Home Sales Affected by New Appraisal Rules

I wish I did not know first-hand about the problems arising from the so-called improved appraisal process, aka The Home Valuation Code of Conduct.

My SF home buyer and seller clients and I have danced the dance of this new system and as a manager, I’m privy to many more San Francisco real estate purchases waylaid by out-of-area appraisers driving too many miles from Fresno to appraise a house in the Sunset.
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Fresno to Sunset District SF = 191 miles

Yes, it’s supposed to help ensure a safe, transparent home appraisal process whether you are buying  a single family home in Bernal Heights or a Mission Dolores condo. The devil is in the details. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: appraisal, hvcc