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JVI Appraisal Division, LLC And Visre Partner To Create Appraisal Products Using Authenticated Street-Level Imagery
JVI Appraisers Can Immediately Increase Income As Imaging Drive Partner

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Jacksonville, FL., (May 12, 2008) – Appraisal imagery provider Visre, Inc. announced today a multi-year partnership with JVI Appraisal Division, LLC, a national leader in providing REO valuations, portfolio evaluations, and origination appraisal services.  Armed with Visre's ability to rapidly capture and authenticate high quality property photos and video, JVI will introduce new image-enabled valuation products designed specifically to meet industry demand for improved reliability, faster turnaround, and lower costs.  

A single Visre vehicle mounted DriveBy Camera system can capture images of thousands of properties in a single day.  The DriveBy Camera system includes 8 cameras, a GPS device, high capacity drives, a laptop PC, and broadband mobile connections.  Each of the 8 cameras captures twelve high resolution images per second while the GPS device simultaneous records location.  The system then links each photo to the GPS coordinates as well as the time and date of capture.  

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The Long View

Monday, May 12, 2008

The current mortgage market problems are not new news…and many professionals in real estate saw this coming quite some time ago. When home prices started exceeding the cost to construct a home by one and a half or more times, and when the market price to rent ratio stayed above 1.15, there were surely issues to follow. Unfortunately, the cost approach is no longer required in most cases, and the data to evaluate prices relative to rents is often not readily available. There are other benchmarks as well but all are challenged by the availability of timely data.

Twentyfive years ago, the mortgage process took 30 days, and the appraisal, ordered on the first day and completed by the tenth day, served as the basis for the loan. Now the mortgage process takes five to seven days and, while appraisers have used technology to respond more quickly – usually two to four days – the parties have often already decided how much they are going to borrow or lend. The role of the appraiser has changed. Instead of being a guide, the appraiser is the person who “makes or breaks the deal.” And, the only feedback an appraiser usually gets today is negative feedback (you screwed up my deal!!!).

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Q&A with Steve Albert of Allstate Appraisal

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Steven S. Albert, MAI, SRA is the Executive Vice President of Allstate Appraisal, L.P. a national valuation and appraisal review services company founded by his father, Warren Albert, SRA in 1959. Allstate Appraisal, L.P. was already one of the Chicago area’s largest independent providers of residential, commercial, and industrial appraisal services when Steve joined the company in 1986. In 1993, he took the company national, providing valuation and review services through a network of quality appraisers around the country, managed by a highly experienced team of appraisers and support staff. Allstate Appraisal, L.P. is a member of The Appraisal Foundation's Industry Advisory Council, a group of professionals that help advise the Foundation on appraisal qualifications and standards issues affecting the appraisal industry.

BUZZ: Your father started Allstate Appraisal almost 50 years ago, and you’ve worked there for 22 years. That’s a long time in the appraisal business. Why is that important?

Steve Albert: Allstate began as a family company, and even though we now have a national footprint, we’ve remained a family company in many ways. Our staff is incredibly dedicated to us, and we’re dedicated to them. The average tenure of our senior staff now exceeds 10 years, and most are young people. Our national operations manager has been with us 27 years, and is only 48 years old—that’s more than half of her life.  The same with our national production manager and national accounts manager—all here nearly half their lives.

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May 2008 Mailbag

Monday, May 5, 2008

From time to time I share the comments that are emailed to me with all of you. You might imagine my frustration when we can’t find a consensus around many of the critical issues that plague the appraisal business these days. With respect to the OFHEO/Cuomo agreements many opinions have been formed based upon rumor. I urge again that you go back and read the documents. You are going to be hearing about this for months to come.

Here are a few of the diverse opinions of a few:

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