Marching along...

March has been picking up. Not much going on in the past six months but now that interest rates have dropped people are starting to refi. Much of Solano and Contra Costa have taken huge downturns in property values as have Alameda and many other locations around the bay. On the upside, some buyers are taking advantage of the discounted "bank owned' and "short sale" pricing. Value strongholds include San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Marin counties to name a few. From what I can tell, an abundance of "bank owned (REO)" properties as well as a high number of "short sales" are to blame for the declines. I predict foreclosures and declines to continue until early 2009 and possible beyond. Refi now because the rates aren't going any lower.

What's happening...

I haven't blogged in forever. Holidays and then weddings, all kinds of things have happened over the last 4 months. The appraisal market was non-existent in the latter part of 2007. There was also very little business in January. However, business is picking up. Rates are so low people are refinancing. Hopefully things keep going steady.

It's a miracle....

I was approved by HUD. Let the celebrations begin!!! More appropriately, I hope I can get some extra business.

Crossing my Fingers

Called H.U.D. one last time to find out if they ever processed my application. They said they had no record of it being approved. On top of that, when I told her I had faxed the requested information 3 times, she responded that their fax machine is often broken or has so many faxes coming through that my document probably never made it. She then told me to just send it regular mail and they will be more likely to get it. Are you kidding me? It's amazing how much time I've wasted on this and how much time they have probably wasted on me. Just another example of a government agency in need of reform. Hopefully my approval is just around the corner.

Reminder to Appraisers

As of today I have at least 5 clients who are either going out of business or who just keep delaying payment on money that they owe to Fog City Appraisal. I've started a more strict policy wherein I no longer do escrow appraisals unless the client is a returning customer. Even then, I'm very careful to do escrow. So watch out. More and more deals are falling through for these loan brokers due to the state of the market.

-Randy

Giving up on H.U.D.

After four attempts to get my info to H.U.D., I think I'm giving up. They called me a couple times for additional info. I faxed it over and they always say that they did not receive it. I've never lost as many faxes in transit as I have with these people. They refuse to give me their e.mail addresses because it's "against policy". I suppose I could send the last required page via snail mail but in the end, I'm wondering if working with them is going to be just as much of a hassle as the application process. Anyway, down with H.U.D., another bureaucracy proves itself unworthy of operating efficiently.

H.U.D. = P.I.T.A.

I have now sent my HUD application three times. The first two time I tried to fax it to them. They have this great policy of sending a request for missing information through U.S. mail. The first two applications were somehow missing pages, even though I faxed a pdf doc using eFax. There is no way the document could have dropped a page unless the HUD fax machine was not printing correctly. So after a month, I get a letter in the mail saying that I was missing some items. Then I re-faxed. A month later, I get the same thing, I was missing pages. I suggest to anyone out there applying to get on the HUD appraiser list, DO NOT FAX. The third application I decided to send certified mail with return receipt, just to make sure it got their. This worked out well and about a month later, I got a call from a guy at HUD requesting the names and addresses of five loan brokers I have worked with. Of course he asked me to fax the info; do these people not have e.mail!!!?? That was about a month ago and my name is still not showing up on the HUD appraiser roster. Go figure. I'm wondering if they got my one page fax with the loan broker names. Since it's been a month, I guess I'll be hearing from them soon. Will I ever get on this list?