Top appraisal blog posts of 2015

A look at my top appraisal blog posts for 2015

It’s interesting to look back at my blog over the last 12 months to see which posts were the most popular. There’s several ways to look at the popularity of a post including the amount of comments as well as how many people visited the blog on the day it was published.

Today I thought I’d share my top appraisal blog posts of 2015 by looking at the number of comments. If you’re a new visitor and reader to my blog I hope you’ll take a look at these older posts you may have missed. Feel free to add your comments or thoughts to them if you want.

As a bonus I thought I would also include the post that generated the most traffic to my blog. Not every reader likes to comment, but they spend time visiting my blog because the topic is interesting to them or answers a question they may have at the time. I hope you enjoy revisiting some older blog posts from last year that others found interesting.

5 top appraisal blog posts

7 Things an appraiser has to be thankful for – It was interesting to see that this blog post was one of the most popular of last year. I wrote this around Thanksgiving because I wanted to remind appraisers that while there always seems to be ever changing things occurring in our profession, such as changes in business due to the economy or a new regulations, we are still a part of an honest and worthwhile profession that is needed in our economy.

Four areas the appraiser will not include in your home’s square footage – One of the most frequent questions I get has to do with what areas of the home are included in the total gross living area calculations. This is important because the larger a home is the more it is worth, for the most part. Knowing what areas are included and which ones are not can help both agents and homeowners understand how appraisers arrive at a final opinion of value.

What to do when the house doesn’t appraise – The world is not over if the house doesn’t appraise. Sometimes there are honest mistakes made and other times it may be possible to request a reconsideration of value. This post gave actionable steps that agents or borrowers can take to see if it is possible for the value to be increased.

How might the new Collateral Underwriter affect appraisers, agents, and loan closings? – Fannie Mae’s new collateral underwriter tool began to be used in January of 2015. From an appraiser’s perspective it basically allows Fannie Mae to intensely review appraisal reports with information that Fannie Mae has been collecting over the years. Most appraisers agree that the data would be put to better use by providing it to appraisers to help them do their jobs better.

Have we reached a tipping point in social media for real estate appraisers? – Appraisers are embracing and using social media to affect change in our topsy turvy profession. With the increase in podcasts, blogs, and socially savvy appraisers we are amplifying our voices to avoid being pushed around by AMC bullies and over the top government legislation.

Bonus

I’m including a bonus post because it was one that generated the most traffic to my appraisal blog in 2015.

Three questions an appraiser will not answer during the appraisal inspection – I am generally open to answering questions that homeowners ask when I’m at their home for the appraisal inspection, however there are some things we cannot or may not want to discuss. Of the 70+ blog posts I wrote in 2015 this one was interesting enough to bring the most visitors to my blog.

Question

Now that you’ve seen some of my top appraisal blog posts from last year, is there a topic that you didn’t see covered but would like for me to? My goal is to write on topics you have questions about, so if there is something about appraising that you are unsure of or would like more clarification on please let me know because I’m sure that if you have a question about it then others will as well, so leave me a comment below. As always, thanks for Reading.

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