The Appraisal Files

Spring is finally here and its great to be outside visiting homes again. There are signs that new homes are in demand again. I have seen more new homes under construction in the last two weeks than all of last year. Hope springs eternal in our business.

I have finally completed the last hurdle for my SRA designation, I am waiting for the official announcement to get new businees cards and stationary printed.

Be safe, be happy, and be busy.

Big Dann 

Well 2010 is finallly here, I sure hope more homes start to sell, comps are harder to find every day for the re-fi's and foreclosures.

Good news I have been added to the VA fee appraisers panel, and have my Certified General License, I am excited about the posibility of extra work for VA and commercial work.

With the holidays just around the corner, business is increasing. The demand for quicker turn around from my clients is a constant challange. I have added staff and we are now at 48 hours from inspection of the properyt in non rural areas with rural areas 24 hours later. I have had inquires that ask for 24 hours or less turn time, we are just not there yet! Have a safe and happy Thangsgiving.

Well 2009 is finally here, good by and good ridence to 2008. I think this financial black hole we are in will be longer and deeper than anyone imagined.

A very little part of my business is new home sales at this time. If it wasn't for refi and REO business things would be very slow.

The Fed finally cut rates down for quarter for percent that means the next highest percent cut the government will pay you to take their money.

With the credit crisis, what it is the demand for houses is as strong as ever having the ability to obtain credit to purchase the home has almost dried up new home sales. Until the credit crisis has been solved new homes, new cars, new anything sales will be flat.

President-Elect Obama's plan to spend money on infrastructure is a positive move in my opinion. When Pres. Roosevelt built roads and dams in the 1930s he get the economy moving again. Those roads and dams that was built in the 30s need to be repaired or replaced and should provide numerous job opportunities for the economy as a whole. I wish everyone the best of the the new year, health and happiness to all.

It's less that two weeks before Christmas and I have all my shopping completed and the packages wrapped! I shop for Christmas all year long so all I have to do is wrap  what I have bought through out the year. As this year winds down I worry about what 2009 will bring, the huge number of people that are laid off and the ones that know that they will be laid off after the holidays, are not going to be able to buy anything much less a home. I am thankful that 2008 has been my best year yet, I have all the hope that the new president will be able to get the economy moving in the right direction.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday. Good luck in the new year. May God Bless our country, our leaders, our soldiers, and our people. Even in hard economic times I feel blessed to be able to live in America.

Dann

Well the election has come and gone and we are still in a pickle as far as the housing crisis is conserned. I hope that the new adminstration will see the positive side of getting an appraisal of a home that is about to go into foreclosure and re-finance the home with a FHA guaranteed loan, then adsorbe the difference. This is a much better sequence of events than letting the home go into foreclosure, evict the owners, sell the home at the court house door to a home flipper, and have the original family now as renters. The time and cost of the process is much less letting the homeowner stay in the home. The one provision is that if this write down did take place if the home was sold at some time in the future the government would get the increase in price up to the level of the forgiven loan amount. A program much like this is in place now to help challanged buyers to afford a home, in the form of a reduced interest rate that is payable when the home is sold and a profit is realized over the what is owed on the home.

Well the market has crashed, the credit market is holding on to every dollar, and people are being laid off.

Say it an so Bush, Chaney, McCain. Tell us how the economy is fundamentally strong, send us another stimulus package to keep people from rioting in the streets. Tell us how giving tax breaks to big business will help the economy.

You say the weath will trickle down, I do not know how others feel but I feel like I have been trickled on!

On to other things business has been slow and I expect it to be worse as we get to the end of the year. I am using the slow down to take more educational classes, so that when the market turns I will be able to attract more clients. I have taken all the classes needed to have my SRA designation from the Appraisal Inistitute, all I have left is the filling out the log and sending in sample reports. I have also taken all the classed I need to become a certified general appraiser but again have not filled out the log and sent in samples of my work. I have just been too busy, but I expect to have both completed by the end of November. I expect that is all I will have to do. I am not laying off staff. I will find something for them to do. My people have help me build my business, I refues to drop them like a hot rock when things are getting tough. They stayed with me when we had to work extra hours to get that report our. I will not let them down right as the holiday season starts. Talk about a "scrooge" to lay off people just before the holidays, no way.

Well Sepetember is here and the weather and business is cooling off. For the first time this year order numbers have declined. The sad part is that of the orders I am getting there are too many foreclosures. I have inspected so many Bank-Owned properties this year that this has become the largest class of business for my practice. I am taking  the Appraisal Inistute coures for REO appraisals because of the number or request I have been getting. I think the inistitute course will make my reports sharper, and more to the point.

Good busines to everyone

Dann Cann

July is here with a bang.

Well FHA has taken up the slack left by the subprime melt-down. FHA is the only place left that borrowers can get a 97% loan and the seller can contrubute 3% in sellers consessions, making the deal a no money down loan.

I do not know what this will lead to but I do know the the FHA will not run out of money like the private section. If you can print money you cannot runout, it may be worth less but you can't run out.

The first six months was a record for C & M, our business keeps growing now that the lenders really want to know what it is worth not just what will make the deal work.

I am happy to announce that we have added Ms. Lisa Mullins to our staff, Lisa will be processing the reports to speed up our turn-time on orders. We are now at 4 days from inspection and our goal to cut that in half. With the large area that I cover this is a lofty goal but one we can reach.

To that end we have added two associates, Christy Jones and Linda Scarbrough to help with data collection in South and Far Western Kentucky.

We are excited to have Chirsty and Linda working with us to improve customer service.