Thursday, March 28, 2024 | The Latest Buzz for the Appraisal Industry

What happened in Vegas…

We are just getting back and recovering from Valuation Expo in Las Vegas, NV. A combination of time changes and long days lasting into long nights makes for one heck of an Expo! It’s been over two years since our last run in Las Vegas, and our attendance was great hitting 560 registered attendees. During the conference our continuing education panels were addressing some hot topics and providing insight about the future of the industry. For those unable to attend this Valuation Expo conference, here is a glimpse of what happen.

The conference began on Thursday, November 10th, with the quarterly Collateral Risk Network meeting. This was a closed meeting, open to member’s only. Moderator, Jerry Yurek of PNC Bank, kept things moving while speakers addressed home ownership counseling, training the next generation, VA updates, loan collateral advising and appraisal quality, analytics, and mortgage and policy updates. Speakers included David Berenbaum of Homeownership Preservation Foundation, Tim Forsythe of Forsythe Appraisals, John Bell of Veteran Affairs, Gary Skinner & Scott Reuter of Freddie Mac, Steve O’Brien of HouseCanary, Zach Dawson of Fannie Mae, and Rob Chrisman of Capital Markets Advisor.

ACI, a platinum sponsor of Valuation Expo, hosted a day long workshop for anyone looking to learn more about their new suite of products. These training sessions covered different aspects of their new cloud based appraisal platform ACI Sky and using ACI One Software.

The trade show floor opened in the evening hours on Thursday with a reception of drinks and light appetizers, giving exhibitors and attendees a chance to meet and interact before the two days of continuing education.

Bright and early on Friday, November 11th, the day began with our keynote address from Rob Chrisman, Chrisman LLC. Rob addressed the state of our economy and how it affects collateral risk in the future. The morning continuing education session continued with moderator Tim Evanko, Dwellworks, and a panel of experts from HUD, VA, and USDA. Panel speakers included Don Doan, HUD, Gerald Kifer, VA, and Michael Schnetzler, USDA. VA recorded another record year stating a 12% increase over FY 2015.

After lunch, we continued the CE with a panel discussing Big Data moderated by Alan Hummel of Forsythe Appraisals. This panel of speakers included Susan Allen of CoreLogic, Mike Floyd of Assurant Valuations, Michael Bradley of Freddie Mac, and George Opelka of ACI. The panel continued the discussion on how to access and leverage data and analytics tools and how the role of the appraiser may change in the future.

Saturday’s CE session began with a very informative discussion on Fannie Mae and breaking down observations from UAD data analysis. The session led by Zach Dawson, Fannie Mae, and his team addressed many common Fannie Mae policy myths and provided guidance from Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide. Michael Simmons, AXIS Appraisal Management Solutions, moderated this panel of Fannie Mae speakers. Other members of the Fannie Mae team included Lyle Radke, Steve Corbin, and Adam Davis.

The afternoon session was a discussion on appraisal best practices, which included helpful tips and what clients want to see in an appraisal report. During the end of the session the floor opened up into a Town Hall style discussion on appraisal best practices. Paul Chandler, Property Sciences, moderated while speakers Andrew Bough, JP Morgan Chase, Ken DeFeo, Union Bank, Jeff Rauland, Rauland Advisors, LLC, and Danny Wiley, ServiceLink, answered questions from attendees and provided insight on how to produce a credible appraisal report.

During the lunch break on Saturday, we did take some time to draw the winners for the Appraisal Bee. As always our trade show vendors go above and beyond with some fabulous prizes. Below is a list of prizes that our exhibitors donated and the lucky winners. 

EXHIBITOR: PRIZE – WINNER

ACI: $100 Amazon gift card – Nancie Haas
Allterra Online: 50-inch smart TV – Peri Jordan
Anow: Samsung Galaxy Tab A – Steven Weber
Associations Liability Lindbergh Insurance: $100 Amazon gift card – Cindy Zazzetti
Assurant Valuations: Bosch Laser Distance & Angle Measurer – Christy Butler
AXIS Appraisal Management: $100 cash – Shannon Hamilton
Bradford Technologies: $50 gas card – Janis Dimisko
Clearbox: Apple TV – John Mahgen
CoreLogic: $100 Visa gift card – Jessica Tingler
DataMaster: Portable Wireless Speaker – Sandra Sanchez-Thom
Genie Cloud: Amazon Fire Tablet – Jennifer Hilt
ieIMPACT: $50 Amazon gift card – Charles Matthew Riches
InHouseUSA: Leica Disto – Patrick Berding
Intercorp, Inc: $100 Amazon gift card – Dennis Paylor
Landy Insurance: Galaxy Tab E Lite – Nicole Peters
LIA: $100 MasterCard gift card – Charlene Castillo
National Mortgage News: 1-year subscription to National Mortgage News – Horacio Silva
NVS: $250 Best Buy gift card – Deborah Sterenbuch
ServiceLink: $250 Best Buy gift card – Mike Del Monaco
Appraise-It (SFREP): Mini Jawbone Jambox – Lawrence Schmitt
Solidifi: Dewalt Laser Distance Measurer – Cathy Simmons
Springhouse: $100 Flamingo Casino Chip – Lynn Kerchen
The Appraiser Coach: 1 free membership to All-Star Team ($495 value) & 1 free online course ($295 value) – Don Hendrickson
Treasure Valley Factors: $50 and some TVF products and promotional items – Brad Way
TSI Appraisal: Lecia Disto D2 – Gordon Collin
ValueLink Software: $200 Amazon gift card – Courtenay Graham

We want to thank all of our sponsors and exhibitors who participated this year for donating such fantastic prizes and congratulate all of our winners again!

Join us next year in Orlando, Florida March 18th-20th, 2017, where we will be offering all new CE, different panel sessions, great speakers, and a buzzing trade show floor.

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Brent Bowen

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